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< | COVID-19 & The Boundaries of Privacy – East Meets West | >
> | COVID-19 & The Boundaries of Privacy; East Meets West | | | | |
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< | -- By TalMaman - 21 Nov 2020 | >
> | -- By TalMaman – 31 January 2021 | | | | |
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< | The COVID-19 global pandemic has brought about unprecedented challenges to individuals, businesses, and governments around the world. While methodologies of approach have varied, the manner by which individual governments are fighting against the deadly, highly contagious COVID-19 virus is telling of its political climate, values and trust in its citizens. | >
> | The COVID-19 global pandemic has involved unprecedented challenges to individuals, businesses, and governments around the world. While methodologies of approach have varied, the manner by which different nations and their respective governments are fighting against the deadly, highly contagious COVID-19 virus is telling of its political climate, values and trust in its citizens. | | | I. Government Surveillance in the East
a. State of Emergency | |
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< | “According to an epidemiologic investigation, on March 10, you were next to a verified carrier of COVID-19. You must enter into self-quarantine immediately to protect your relatives and the public…” This is an excerpt of text messages sent hourly across Israel to individuals that were found to have been near someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Upon the outbreak of COVID-19, the Israeli prime minister declared a State of Emergency and instructed the Israeli national security agency (Shin Bet) to use its surveillance capabilities, normally utilized against national security threats, to track Israeli citizens’ geolocation. Once an individual is found (via geolocation) to have been nearby a confirmed COVID-19 patient, they must enter into a government-mandated quarantine. Thereafter, Shin Bet will continuously track the individual’s location to ensure compliance. There are no opt-out options, no terms and conditions and no privacy policy. The Israeli government has determined that it knows best, and as such, has invoked its executive powers to surveil its citizens in attempt to fight the pandemic. | >
> | ”According to an epidemiologic investigation, on March 10, you were next to a verified carrier of COVID-19. You must enter into self-quarantine immediately to protect your relatives and the public…” This is an excerpt of text messages sent hourly across Israel to individuals that were found to have been near someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Upon the outbreak of COVID-19, the Israeli prime minister declared a State of Emergency and instructed the Israeli national security agency (Shin Bet) to use its surveillance capabilities, normally utilized against national security threats, to track Israeli citizens’ geolocations. Accordingly, any individual found to have been nearby a confirmed COVID-19 patient, must then enter a government-mandated quarantine. Thereafter, Shin Bet will continuously track that individual’s location to enforce compliance. Breach of the mandated quarantine may lead to a large fine, or even jail. There are no opt-out options, no terms and conditions and no privacy policy. The Israeli government has determined that it knows best, and as such, has invoked its executive powers to surveil its citizens in attempt to fight the pandemic. | | | | |
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< | Though this use of government power in a modern democracy may seem extreme, it is not unique. The governments of Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore, have implemented similar (and in some cases more invasive) means of tracking their citizens’ whereabouts and tracing the spread of COVID-19. | >
> | Though this use of government power in a modern democracy may seem extreme, it is not unique. The governments of Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore, to name a few, have implemented similar (and in some cases more invasive) means of tracking their citizens’ whereabouts and tracing the spread of COVID-19. | | | b. The Price of Geolocation Tracing | | | c. Was it worth it? | |
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< | While the spread of COVID-19 may have been stifled by these extreme and invasive government measures, it certainly has not stopped. In fact, cases in Israel and South Korea have surged over the summer despite the geolocation tracing and quarantine mandates. | >
> | While the spread of COVID-19 may have been stifled by these extreme and invasive government measures, it certainly has not stopped. In fact, cases in Israel and South Korea have surged over the summer despite the geolocation tracing and quarantine mandates. | | | In hindsight, this “necessary evil” may be more appropriately deemed a mere “evil”, continuously tracking and storing the whereabouts of citizens, while no end to the pandemic is in sight. | | | a. Freedom, Liberty and Autonomy | |
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< | In a drastic shift to the western part of the globe, the US government has refrained from utilizing its well-established surveillance infrastructure in its fight against COVID-19. Regardless of its broad powers under FISA and both the USA PATRIOT and USA FREEDOM Acts, the Trump administration has not implemented a country-wide surveillance tracing system. Contrarily, several senators introduced the COVID-19 Consumer Data Protection Act, aimed to safeguard individual’s personal health, device, geolocation or proximity information from various privately-developed tracing app companies. | >
> | In a drastic shift to the western part of the globe, the US government refrained from utilizing its well-established surveillance infrastructure in its fight against COVID-19. Regardless of its broad powers under FISA and both the USA PATRIOT and USA FREEDOM Acts, the Trump administration did not implement a country-wide surveillance tracing system. Contrarily, several senators introduced the COVID-19 Consumer Data Protection Act, aimed to safeguard personal health, device, geolocation or proximity information from various privately-developed tracing app companies. | | | Recognizing a potential need, in unprecedented collaboration, tech-giants Apple and Google jointly developed a feature that detects and alerts users of encounters with COVID-19 patients. However, it is not currently linked with local health authorities, and more importantly, most Americans are either unwilling or unable to use the app. When left to choose for themselves, in contrast to citizens of eastern countries, Americans have chosen to be left alone. Unfortunately, without a vast majority of the population opting-in, the app is useless. | | | III. A Hierarchy of Values? | |
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< | While the appropriate trade-off between individual liberties and national security will be debated for years to come, the tools employed by each government in its fight of COVID-19 may be telling of its values and overall trust in its constituents. Government mandates and surveillance in the East indicate a lack of trust in individuals to adhere to health recommendations that, allegedly, are in the best interest of the public. In this case, government assumes a paternalistic role, authoritatively deciding that the preservation of health and safety protocol outweighs individual privacy. On the other hand, a lack of such mandates across the US may be a signal of the government’s trust that individuals will voluntarily follow health recommendations. It is also reasonable to conclude that, perhaps, the absence of US government involvement is simply a result of the political climate in which COVID-19 has emerged. Amid an election season, it is not surprising that any administration would refrain from unpopular or controversial acts. With the possibility of a drastically different administration on the horizon, however, we may expect more government involvement and mandates. It remains to be seen what measures a different administration may take in an attempt to tame the global pandemic.
A very good start, leaving little—I think—that can be done to improve it along its current lines. Your prediction that there will be more surveillance measures under an administration more determined to confront the virus with national policy is, I think, wrong. The prospect of any national administration further inflaming libertarian sentiment over surveillance is slim at best. mask mandates at the national level are conceivable, but efforts to collect location data are not. Nonetheless, it's an interesting speculation for you, given the lousy results achieved by automated contact tracing not only in Israel, South Korea, and China, the cratering of the UK app, etc., but also by the success of local, human-led public halth work in Vietnam. In the end, it may be that the experience of this epidemic will have discredited surveillance more than supporting it.
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> | While the “appropriate” trade-off between individual liberties and national security will be debated for years to come, the tools employed by each government in its fight of COVID-19 may be telling of its values and overall trust in its constituents. Government mandates and surveillance in the East indicate a lack of trust in individuals to adhere to health recommendations that, allegedly, are in the public interest. In this case, governments have assumed a paternalistic role, authoritatively deciding that the preservation of health and safety protocol outweighs individual privacy. Conversely, a lack of invasive mandates across the US may be a signal of the government’s trust that individuals will voluntarily follow health recommendations. It is also reasonable to conclude that, perhaps, the moderate US government involvement is simply a result of the political climate. It appears that current administration, which entered the scene almost a year into the pandemic’s outbreak, is prepared to enact certain restrictive measures, and data collection, from which its predecessor refrained amid the 2020 election season. It remains to be seen how the different measures taken by each government across the globe effect the spread of the global pandemic, if at all. |
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