Mobile operators in Italy, Germany, and Austria are now sharing anonymized aggregated data with health authorities, to map people's concentrations and movements
What starts as carrier-to-government aggregate mapping quickly escalates into individual-level infrastructure — by autumn, the European Commission has moved from these informal feeds to [[a:959163|cross-border interoperability between Germany's, Ireland's, and Italy's contact tracing apps]].
First-order effects
Health authorities in Italy, Germany, and Austria gain near-real-time heat maps of population concentration and movement, letting them target lockdown measures and resource placement without waiting for case reports.
The carriers become de facto public-health data suppliers, taking on privacy exposure and reputational risk while their networks' signaling data becomes a government planning input.
Second-order effects
Governments elsewhere copy the model rather than wait for their own telcos — the US route through ad-tech location data and the UK route through Google show commercial data brokers being pulled into the response alongside operators.
Aggregate dashboards prove insufficient once officials want to notify individuals, pushing the same countries toward opt-in contact tracing apps and, eventually, EU-level interoperability testing.
Third-order effects
An emergency-use precedent is set for repurposing telecom and commercial location data under GDPR constraints, shifting the debate from whether such data can be used to how much aggregation is enough before it becomes surveillance.
If the pattern holds, public-health crises become recurring justification for standing government access to mobility data, with Europe's answer — interoperable, decentralized apps — competing against ad-data shortcuts as the durable template.
The trend: The pandemic is normalizing government use of mobile location data, escalating from carrier-provided aggregate maps to individual-level, cross-border contact tracing infrastructure.
My phone, which is satellite-tracked by the Taiwan gov to enforce quarantine, ran out of battery at 7:30 AM. By 8:15, four different units called me. By 8:20, the police were knocking at my door.
Thoughts on the growing debate over whether COVID-19 illustrates the moral necessity of using AI and other tech for more expansive and intrusive forms of public health surveillance: a thread. 1/n https://twitter.com/...
Location tracking through cellphone tower triangulation has led to convictions based on data later shown to be false in the US, well documented by @EFF. I agree quarantined people need to be tracked, but the ins and outs of doing it well is not the tech utopia you imagine https:/…
is this breach of privacy? of course, but it's a legitimate breach of privacy due to protection of vital interest (i.e. lives) of data subject nice job Taiwanese govt., hopefully Indonesia is able to provide the equivalent level of protection in yhe future https://twitter.com/...
I once wrote an article on TechCrunch about how, eventually, we'd all be required by law to carry a mobile device at all times to be tracked. It's inevitable. Was mocked. https://twitter.com/...
true but understates the case— it's not just our peace of mind at risk, it's physical safety, protections for fairness & due process, & protections against discrimination & exploitation. injured dignity shouldn't be minimized but it's not the primary harm. https://www.wired.com/.…
When @sidneyfussell asked for my thoughts on enhancing surveillance to fight disease, I emphasized that creating Covid-19 response infrastructure incentivizes companies to find creative ways to benefit from mission creep. https://www.wired.com/...
As a thought experiment, consider how aggregated location data could be useful when investigating an unexpected increase in new cases. But, this data mostly comes with dubious consent from Facebook/Google logins and weather apps, etc. Is all forgiven? https://twitter.com/...
Disclosures of personal data about coronavirus patients around the world have drastically eroded people's ability to keep their health status private. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Surveillance of entire communities escalates around the world, with civil liberties experts citing concerns for the decline of personal privacy rights. https://www.nytimes.com/...
This piece is fair and correct. Barring a vaccine miracle, we're getting out of this mess via testing, masks, and contact-tracing, not by shutting down the economy and starving instead of coughing to death. What will suck is walking back the years of obtuse privacy ‘debate’. http…
“ratcheting up surveillance to combat the pandemic now could permanently open the doors to more invasive forms of snooping later. It is a lesson Americans learned after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001...” https://www.nytimes.com/... .onion: https://www.nytimes3xbfgragh.on…
Even with the best of intentions, we must remember that no program is so permanent as a government program. Crises management without an eye to the future stands to erode civil liberties in ways we may not be able to easily roll back. https://www.nytimes.com/...
A critical discussion right now and for the next, well, forever: How Surveillance Could Save Lives Amid a Public Health Crisis https://www.wired.com/... vs. As Coronavirus Surveillance Escalates, Personal Privacy Plummets https://www.nytimes.com/...
Facial recognition, GPS data, geofencing — the nonstop tracking that sparked the “techlash” could actually help flatten the curve and save lives. Should we treat Big Tech's coronavirus responses differently from its other, suspect “public good” measures? https://www.wired.com/...
“In South Korea's highly wired society, however, internet mobs exploited patient data disclosed by the government site to identify people by name and hound them.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
As the world races to contain the coronavirus, many countries are using digital surveillance. Tracking entire populations now could open the doors to more invasive tracking later. https://www.nytimes.com/...
“We could so easily end up in a situation where we empower local, state or federal government to take measures in response to this pandemic that fundamentally change the scope of American civil rights,” said Albert Fox Cahn, exec. director of @STOPSpyingNY https://www.nytimes.com…
Ratcheting up surveillance to combat the pandemic now could permanently open the doors to more invasive forms of snooping later. It is a lesson Americans learned after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, civil liberties experts say. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitte…
More surveillance is not the answer. More surveillance is not the answer. More surveillance is not the answer. More surveillance is not the answer. More surveillance is not the answer. More surveillance is not the answer. https://www.nytimes.com/...