So requiring people accept Google or Apple’s terms and conditions and being forced to own and use one of their products, on a whim, during a crisis, is less egregious than doing so long term?
“That ship has sailed” essentially means that it has already happened, and precedent has been set. Which… it has. That it was (initially) done as a temporary measure doesn’t change that.
obviously it is, yes. For example, plenty of people just avoided travel during that time and managed to not have to use an app. If it was ongoing that wouldn't be the case.
The precedent that has been set is: if there is ever another crisis of that scale, using a smartphone app to try to mitigate it is one of the options on the table. That doesn't seem like a bad thing to me.
“That ship has sailed” essentially means that it has already happened, and precedent has been set. Which… it has. That it was (initially) done as a temporary measure doesn’t change that.