[soziawa]

This is based on pure speculation, but could it be that Apple believes the covid tracking functionality has shifted power from governments to Apple?

Many governments (e.g. Germany) wanted location instead of token based tracking with central storage of location pretty much up until the point where Apple and Google said that it won't happen .

This is based on my perception of Germany tech media coverage of the issue.

[tgsovlerkhgsel]

> the covid tracking functionality has shifted power from governments to Apple?

IMO this is off topic, but I think it absolutely has done that, and has demonstrated it. I'm surprised governments haven't screamed about it more loudly, but maybe they didn't want to do that in an example where they were clearly on the wrong side (pushing for privacy-violating approaches).