COVID-19 Could Provide Cover for Surveillance Expansion

guest · Mar 31, 2020

German minister says tracking apps to tackle coronavirus must be voluntary
March 31, 2020
https://in.reuters.com/article/heal...e-coronavirus-must-be-voluntary-idINKBN21I0L5

German Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht told Deutschlandfunk radio on Tuesday that tracking apps to help tackle coronavirus could only be used voluntarily in Germany, where people are deeply suspicious of digital surveillance.

“It’s a real infringement if I have such data so I can only agree with everyone who says that if there is such a solution that actually breaks the chains of infection, it’s only possible if those who have it on their mobile phones and so use it do so voluntarily,” Lambrecht said.
Germany hopes to launch a smartphone app within weeks to help trace coronavirus infections, after a broad political consensus emerged that adopting an approach pioneered by Singapore can be effective without invading people’s privacy.
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Minimalist · Mar 31, 2020

Covid-19 Poll Results: One in Four Prioritize Health Over Privacy

An informal Threatpost reader poll shows the majority of site visitors are privacy absolutists. But attitudes shift when the trade off is saving lives.
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https://threatpost.com/covid-19-poll-results-one-in-four-prioritize-health-over-privacy/

Dermot7 · Mar 31, 2020

by Jessica Davis
March 31, 2020
To battle the COVID-19 global pandemic, States are increasingly deploying intelligence and surveillance tools to monitor their populations in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus and limit its human and economic impacts. The use of these tools and techniques, once largely the purview of security, intelligence, and law enforcement, represents the extraordinary lengths that many States are taking to stop the infection. These efforts involve collecting data on citizens from cell phones, financial transactions, and social media intelligence, and combining it with health data, raising significant concerns about privacy and civil liberties. Parallels can be drawn between the global pandemic and the post-9/11 era, which saw significant broadening of state surveillance and intelligence powers around the world – powers that were never rolled back, and have instead became part of the fabric of the State intelligence and security apparatus.
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https://www.justsecurity.org/69384/intelligence-surveillance-and-ethics-in-a-pandemic/

Minimalist · Apr 1, 2020

Australian state will install home surveillance hardware to make sure if you're in virus isolation, you stay there

The State of Western Australia has given itself the power to install surveillance devices in homes, or compel people to wear them, to ensure that those required to isolate during the coronavirus crisis don’t interact with the community.
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https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/01/west_australia_isolation/

hawki · Apr 1, 2020

"[UK] Govt set to release 'contact tracking' app which detects nearby virus carriers

The [UK] government is preparing to release an app which alerts people if they come too close to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19...

The contact tracking app, which will operate on an opt-in basis, will be released either just before or just after the lockdown is lifted, according to several people with close knowledge of the project.

NHS bosses hope the app will attract more than 50% of the population, as large numbers of people using it together will be necessary for it to work effectively..."

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavi...-which-detects-nearby-virus-carriers-11966243

hawki · Apr 1, 2020

"Mass school closures in the wake of the coronavirus are driving a new wave of student surveillance
Colleges are racing to sign deals with ‘online proctor’ companies that watch students through their webcams while they take exams...

“Online proctor” services like these have already policed millions of American college exams, tapping into students’ cameras, microphones and computer screens when they take their tests at home...

They watch the students’ faces, listen to them talk and can demand they aim their cameras around the room to prove their honesty. Some companies also use facial-recognition, eye-tracking and other software that purports to detect cheating and rates the students’ “academic integrity.”

...Looking off-screen for too long, for instance, can raise a test-taker’s “suspicion” score, potentially leading them to fail the exam..."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/tech...=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Minimalist · Apr 2, 2020

COVID-19 contact tracing apps: Eight privacy questions governments should ask

As part of their efforts to slow the outbreak of coronavirus, governments, research institutions and industry are developing contact tracing apps to record interactions between people. The apps warn users if one of the people they have been recorded as being in contact with is later diagnosed with COVID-19 so they can take appropriate steps like self-isolation.

Such apps could prove useful in avoiding long-term confinement measures. However they collect sensitive information like location data, Bluetooth-enabled proximity information, and whether individuals are infected.

Now, a new white paper by Imperial College London's Dr. Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye has outlined eight questions that should be asked to understand how protective of privacy an app is.
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https://techxplore.com/news/2020-04-covid-contact-apps-privacy.html

Minimalist · Apr 2, 2020

Coronavirus: NSO Offers Covid-19 Tracking Software

Surveillance specialist NSO Group claims it in talks with governments around the world about using its tracking software, which is already being tested by some nation states.

The NSO tracking software reportedly uses mobile phone data to monitor and predict the spread of Coronavirus, raising obvious privacy concerns for some.
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https://www.silicon.co.uk/e-regulation/surveillance/coronavirus-nso-covid-19-tracking-338307

Dermot7 · Apr 3, 2020

Google will publish location data from its users around the world from today, including every county in Ireland, to allow governments and the public to gauge the effectiveness of social distancing measures put in place to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

The reports on users' movements in 131 countries will be made available on a special website and will "chart movement trends over time by geography," according to a post on one of the company's blogs.
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https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2020/0403/1128229-google-location-data/

Nebulus · Apr 3, 2020

This is from the "About this data" section of a Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Report:

We calculate these changes using the same kind of aggregated and anonymized data used to show popular times for places in Google Maps.
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It seems that the reports are compiled from location data that Google already collects and in this case it is just presented in a different way.

Dermot7 · Apr 3, 2020

Nebulus said: ↑

This is from the "About this data" section of a Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Report:

It seems that the reports are compiled from location data that Google already collects and in this case it is just presented in a different way.
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One must consider then why privacy activists/advocates and others are expressing immediate concern? For me it's kind of 'everybody loves a click', for various reasons obviously.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52138076

Google's launch comes a day after EU justice chief Vera Jourova called on the tech giants to share more data with scientists trying to combat the virus.

She also criticised them for not doing more to crack down on false information.

"We still see that the major platforms continue to monetise and incentivise disinformation and harmful content about the pandemic by hosting online ads," said the commissioner.

"This should be stopped. The financial disincentives from clickbait disinformation and profiteering scams also should be stopped."
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https://www.irishtimes.com/business...tracing-app-raises-privacy-concerns-1.4219224

Some apps are mandatory, some are voluntary. All are issued on the basis of an emergency public health need. In some cases, it’s not entirely clear what data is being gathered or how it is being used, or could be used in future.

These are important questions.
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guest · Apr 3, 2020

Moscow To Launch New Surveillance App To Track Residents In Coronavirus Lockdown
April 1, 2020
https://www.npr.org/sections/corona...pp-to-track-residents-in-coronavirus-lockdown

Under restrictions in place since Monday, most of the city's 12 million residents must remain indoors, barring a few exceptions [...] But starting Thursday, Muscovites will have their movements tracked through a mandatory app required on their smartphones. Don't have one? The city says it will lend out devices.

In addition, Moscow residents will be obligated to register for a government-issued QR code — a small square matrix bar code containing personal data. What information the codes will hold isn't yet clear.
The new tools will merge with existing street cameras and face recognition software to quickly identify residents who stray from their homes and/or quarantines, say authorities.
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guest · Apr 4, 2020

Responsible Coronavirus Surveillance Is Possible, Privacy Experts Say
April 2, 2020
https://theintercept.com/2020/04/02/coronavirus-covid-19-surveillance-privacy/

We may now be in the midst of another seismic moment in the history of digital privacy [...]
It’s an extraordinary moment that might call for extraordinary surveillance methods. But privacy advocates tell The Intercept that our ongoing public health crisis doesn’t have to mean creating a civil liberties crisis in turn.

The coronavirus tracking ramp-up is already well underway around the world.
Moscow police say they’ve already busted 200 quarantine violators caught via facial recognition-enabled cameras. [...] Apps that leverage a smartphone’s bounty of built-in, highly accurate sensors to enforce social distancing or map the movements of the infected have been deployed in Singapore, Poland, and Kenya;

These surveillance methods have been enabled by the rise of the smartphone and cloud computing — and of an entire tracking ecosystem around them.
There’s a glaring problem: We’ve heard all this before.
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“Whatever decisions or policies are implemented with respect to responding to this catastrophe have to be those that are demanded by public health officials and experts” as opposed to others in government, particularly “people in the security or law enforcement business,” said Mohammad Tajsar, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

“Governments tend to have a pretty voracious appetite when it comes to data without really understanding the limitations of [the] information, and how and what the use cases are for responding to crises like this one,” he said.
Tajsar added that this sort of skepticism should apply even to broadened access to “aggregated and anonymized” data.
Data Collected for Covid-19 Purposes Should Expire
“Any program must be strictly time-limited,” said Faiza Patel, director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program at NYU Law.
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Lindsey Barrett, an attorney with Georgetown Law’s Institute for Public Representation, also emphasized the importance of walling off public health data [...] any data collected for disease response measures should not be accessible to law enforcement,” Barrett explained.
Beware of Attempts at “Reputation Laundering”
The coronavirus pandemic presents a golden opportunity for corporate and government actors to recast previously unpalatable behavior as livesaving intervention.
Said Edin Omanovic, advocacy director at Privacy International,

“Surveillance companies such as Palantir and NSO Group, social media companies, and big telcos have all now decided now’s the time to open up about their work and customers. I hate to be cynical at a time like this, but I reckon there’s a deal of reputation laundering going on here rather than an altruistic attempt to help things based on the advice of health experts.”
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guest · Apr 4, 2020

Police App Encourages People To Report Neighbors Who Violate Stay At Home Orders (UPDATED)
April 2, 2020
https://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2020/04/police-app-encourages-people-to-report.html

How do you encourage people to turn against each other during the COVID-19 pandemic?
The answer is not that complicated, especially if you live in the City of Bellevue, Washington.

Geekwire revealed how the Bellevue Police Department has turned a public service app into a report on your neighbors app. You can report these incidents through the MyBellevue app on your electronic device or the MyBellevue portal.
A recent Associated Press article revealed that people are all to happy to report on their neighbors.
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Updated 4/3:
LA Mayor Offers Snitches Rewards For Reporting On Neighbors
According to a CBS LA4 article Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that the city would reward snitches.
When law enforcement encourages Americans to turn against each other we all lose. We become a nation controlled by fear.

"Suspected violations are tracked in the MyBellevue app and generate a heat map that shows where gatherings have been reported. The map shows hot spots of activity throughout the City of Bellevue, which is about 10 miles from Seattle.
The Bellevue Police Departments' MyBellevue page claims police need the public's help monitoring their neighbors.
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Nebulus · Apr 4, 2020

Dermot7 said: ↑

One must consider then why privacy activists/advocates and others are expressing immediate concern?
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I think that is is because the collecting of that kind of data is problematic in itself; we are talking about location data, a highly private type of information. This, coupled with the fact that anonymization doesn't always protect the data as it should and with the fact that the data was initially used for another purpose (popular times) and that the purpose shifted overnight is a valid cause for concern.

So IMO, the reason is related with the new way the location info is processed, not because it is collected since that is not something new.

mirimir · Apr 4, 2020

Lindsey Barrett, an attorney with Georgetown Law’s Institute for Public Representation, also emphasized the importance of walling off public health data [...] any data collected for disease response measures should not be accessible to law enforcement,” Barrett explained.
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Good luck on that But it's great to see someone at least saying so.

The "snoop on your neighbors" thing has been SOP since the paleolithic era, at least. Really, since before humans evolved. Plants probably do it too.

Dermot7 · Apr 5, 2020

Nebulus said: ↑

I think that is is because the collecting of that kind of data is problematic in itself; we are talking about location data, a highly private type of information. This, coupled with the fact that anonymization doesn't always protect the data as it should and with the fact that the data was initially used for another purpose (popular times) and that the purpose shifted overnight is a valid cause for concern.

So IMO, the reason is related with the new way the location info is processed, not because it is collected since that is not something new.
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Well yes, of course, we all know the usual candidates that have always been data-hungry, and something of what their practices are (via GDPR legislation etc), but novel situation now is way too tempting for these Data-munchers, and many of them will doubtless take advantage. And in the future?

Minimalist · Apr 5, 2020

Mobile phone tracking should be used in fight against virus

It is difficult to think of anyone more irresponsible at this time of coronavirus crisis than those people who returned from a skiing trip to Colorado with COVID-19 a couple of weeks ago and then wandered around and about, leading to the infection of dozens of people.

Yet Prime Minister Scott Morrison has decided that he is not ready to adopt a technology — based on mobile phone apps widely used in other countries such as Taiwan and Singapore — which could have kept track of people who are in isolation but who refuse to do the right thing.
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https://www.theage.com.au/technolog...d-in-fight-against-virus-20200405-p54hae.html

Stefan Froberg · Apr 5, 2020

Minimalist said: ↑

Mobile phone tracking should be used in fight against virus

https://www.theage.com.au/technolog...d-in-fight-against-virus-20200405-p54hae.html
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What happens to people that simply turn off mobile data or even more simple, just leave their smartphone home?

Minimalist · Apr 5, 2020

Stefan Froberg said: ↑

What happens to people that simply turn off mobile data or even more simple, just leave their smartphone home?
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Privacy cautious might do that, but I don't know many people that would go out without their phones. Specially if they go out to socialize.

guest · Apr 6, 2020

EU privacy watchdog calls for pan-European mobile app for virus tracking
April 6, 2020
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...n-mobile-app-for-virus-tracking-idUSKBN21O1KJ

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) called on Monday for a pan-European mobile app to track the spread of the coronavirus instead of the current hodge-podge of apps used in various EU countries which could breach people’s privacy rights.

Faced with thousands of coronavirus-related deaths, governments across Europe have rolled out or plan to launch phone-tracking apps to trace people who came into contact with those infected and to monitor people under quarantine.
The measures have triggered criticism from data privacy activists, worried they may become permanent once the virus crisis is over.

“Given these divergences, the European Data Protection Supervisor calls for a pan-European model COVID-19 mobile application, coordinated at EU level,” Wojciech Wiewiorowski, the head of the EU privacy watchdog, said in a statement.
“Ideally, coordination with the World Health Organization should also take place, to ensure data protection by design globally from the start,” he said.
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guest · Apr 7, 2020

Tech giants are finding creative ways to use our data to fight the coronavirus
Privacy backlash? What privacy backlash?
April 7, 2020
https://www.theverge.com/interface/...disease-prevention-maps-tech-privacy-backlash

An unexpected outcome of the current pandemic is that big tech companies, which have spent the past three years on the defensive over their data collection practices, are now promoting them.
The result has been a new kind of competition among the tech giants: who can come up with the most effective use of data to aid in the crisis.

Google’s foray into public health came on Friday with the release of its COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports. I wrote about them for The Verge: [...]
On Monday, Facebook moved a step further than Google, announcing a suite of global disease prevention maps as well as a survey tool for identifying coronavirus hotspots. I wrote about that, too: [...]

One question I’ve had during all this reporting is how effective we can expect any of this to be. [...] How helpful can a high-level heat map of human movements really be?
[...] academics and nonprofits do seem to find it all useful, and I expect that we’ll continue to see tech companies introduce new products along these lines as the crisis continues.
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But now who’s to say they’ll pay any price at all? With each passing week, the tech companies are finding new ways to demonstrate the benefits of their global scale. The backlash is, at the very least, on pause. And the search for new and creative ways to use our collective data is only accelerating.
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guest · Apr 7, 2020

W.Va. judge allows ankle monitors for virus scofflaws
April 6, 2020
https://apnews.com/6b082395194d53b10629bb9bb3d037a2

A West Virginia judge in the county with the state’s highest coronavirus caseload has approved strapping ankle monitors to people who test positive but refuse to quarantine, officials said Monday.

The order allows Kanawha County sheriffs to use the GPS bracelets after a county commissioner said “a few” people with the virus ignored isolation orders.

“We do not want to use the GPS ankle bracelets to enforce the quarantines, however, if we must we will. This must be taken seriously,” said Kent Carper, president of the Kanawha County Commission.
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Ankle monitors ordered for Louisville, Kentucky residents exposed to Covid-19 who refuse to stay home

Kentucky is taking severe measures to ensure residents exposed to the coronavirus stay at home. Louisville residents who have been in contact with coronavirus patients but refuse to isolate themselves are being made to wear ankle bracelets.

Having been exposed to the highly contagious disease, D.L. was ordered to stay at home last week. But according to family members, D.L. "leaves the house often."
When D.L. didn't respond to the health department's messages, Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Angela Bisig ordered the Department of Corrections to fit D.L. with a global positioning device for the next 14 days. If D.L. leaves the house again, he or she could be criminally charged, WDRB reports.

WDRB says Jefferson County courts has set up an on-call judge for these types of cases.
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hawki · Apr 7, 2020

"[White House] team seeks national coronavirus surveillance system

Critics worry about a Patriot Act for health care, raising concerns about patient privacy and civil liberties...

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner’s task force has reached out to a range of health technology companies about creating a national coronavirus surveillance system to give the government a near real-time view of where patients are seeking treatment and for what...

...it would also represent a significant expansion of government use of individual patient data, forcing a new reckoning over privacy limits amid a national crisis..."

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/07/kushner-coronavirus-surveillance-174165

hawki · Apr 7, 2020

"World risks 'sleepwalking into surveillance' with coronavirus controls

As countries use tech to tackle COVID-19, rights groups warn digital surveillance measures threaten freedoms and privacy...

Digital surveillance rolled out to curb coronavirus should be limited in time and scope, more than 100 rights groups said on Thursday, warning governments not to use the crisis as cover for pervasive snooping..."

https://news.trust.org/item/20200402133555-3kwdg

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