COVID-19 Could Provide Cover for Surveillance Expansion

Minimalist · Mar 23, 2020

reasonablePrivacy said: ↑

I think WHO is doing good research, guidance for people, communities, but they also see just one side of the coin.
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I agree. They give advise from purely medical perspective and are ATM not worried about other possibly negative consequences of surveilance.

Stefan Froberg · Mar 23, 2020

mirimir said: ↑

I was joking. Seriously. Really.
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Heh, I know

mirimir said: ↑

I
It is odd, though, how few cases there are in Japan. Most likely, it's just that they're restricting testing so tightly. Maybe about the Olympics.

But Old Bill Burroughs did joke about racially targeted bioweapons. So why not the opposite?
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I will bet there will be no Olympics this year. It's just too early and this thing is still running wild out there.
Maybe Japanese people just eat more healthy than westerners.

Another thing that keep popping up from statistics (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/) is that
Italy has lot's of deaths and it's easy to explain: Italy has one of the oldest population in Europe.
This virus is especially fatal to old weak people that maybe already have some other base illness and those with respiratory disease like asthma (like me). But old or young, everybody should just play it cool and avoid contact with large groups.

When I look all the pieces of facts: China did know about the virus in last November but only choose to report in January. The officials tried
to censor the doctor that originally discovered it. The Wuhan Virus Lab that was specifically experimenting with bat coronaviruses and they even created chimera version (in that Nature 2015 article) it's all clear that this was some major f***up in the lab and the officials there are trying to censor it, spread misinformation or swift the blame (like the latests attacks against USA by the Chinese officials).

EDIT:
And for those state sponsored "scientists":

"Lab coat does not make you a God, or immune to government propaganda"

EDIT2:

Even the rich people in China are not safe if speaking their mind of the goverment and of Xi particular. They just "vanish"

(fetched throught startpage proxy):

https://eu-browse.startpage.com/do/...44r6o&ekdata=f673e2d0593fcf2dbf0ca471b47eef62

mirimir · Mar 23, 2020

That is suspicious, I admit.

But I bet that other countries were also experimenting with bat coronaviruses.

About Italy, four members of an Italian family (in New Jersey) died after a dinner party [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51978164].

It's my impression that Italians are extremely diverse genetically, but I guess that there could be ~isolated subpopulations withsusceptibility genes.

I wonder whether anyone's looked for that in the data from Italy.

Krusty · Mar 24, 2020

Coronavirus: Phone data could be used to enforce isolation rules

Self-isolation orders have been imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus and tough new measures could be used to enforce them.

The NSW police minister has held “preliminary discussions” about using mobile phones to monitor whether people are complying with new measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

NSW Police Minister David Elliott told Sunrise this morning it was important people obeyed self-isolation and quarantine rules and knew that police had the power to check whether they were.

“The message has got to be clear that this is serious, you have to take responsibility for your own actions and if you don’t, the police have got the powers to monitor you,” Mr Elliott said.
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https://www.news.com.au/technology/...s/news-story/0d46bf3ef1c62f950ff950fbc1cd36f4

If the coronavirus outbreak worsens it’s possible police could use mobile phone data to ensure compliance with government orders, which has already happened in countries ranging from the authoritarian China to the more democratic South Korea.

Whether Australians would accept such measures in this country remains to be seen.
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guest · Mar 24, 2020

Canada could track COVID-19 through cellphones: experts
March 20, 2020
https://thewirereport.ca/2020/03/20/canada-could-track-covid-19-through-cellphones-experts/

There is nothing standing in the way of telecoms or tech companies handing over bulk data, as long as it’s anonymized. But personally identifiable information, such as the movements or location of individuals, would be subject to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), meaning it can only be provided to authorities if they obtained a warrant — or if there was an order issued under emergency legislation.

Halifax-based privacy lawyer and advocate David Fraser said in a phone interview that in Canada “anything that’s personal level — that says David was here and is now there — has to be legally compelled,” he said.
There are two main ways to do this: going through the courts to obtain a production order or warrant, or through emergency legislation.

Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. did not respond to questions asking how much location data they normally retain and whether they would be willing to provide this information to governments.
Choma clarified that Bell does “have access to previous cell tower location data. At an individual level, this information would only be provided with the consent of the customer or through lawful access.”
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Another factor is how useful the location data would even be in following the spread of the virus.

“Telecommunications companies aren’t in the business of tracking people to any particular precision, other than the default of knowing who connected to what cellphone tower at what particular time,” Fraser said.
Fraser added another indication of how imprecise cellphone location data can be is when individuals call 911 from cellphones.

That means cellphone location information isn’t going to be a way to determine whether individuals kept at a safe distance from each other, but could be for identifying, for example, how many people were in a specific foreign country last week and are now in Canada.
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West agreed that “if it’s truly de-anonymized or just bulk numbers, then that’s the type of information that could be shared, but I think that’s the kind of information we all would be rather comfortable with having shared.”
Companies could provide that anonymized data without legal restrictions if they were asked, Fraser said.
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Krusty · Mar 25, 2020

Americans told to avoid FBI Fitness app over location tracking fears

A new app aimed at helping people stay fit in their own home amid coronavirus isolation has raised questions about what information it collects.

The FBI is helping gym rats looking to stay in shape during the coronavirus lockdown by promoting a fitness app — but it requires users to provide their GPS coordinates.

The law enforcement agency urged people in a Monday tweet to “download the FBI’s Physical Fitness Test app to learn proper form for exercises you can do at home like push-ups and sit-ups.” The catch is that the FBI FitTest created in 2018 uses the “phone’s GPS and accelerometer,” which the FBI claims provides the user a “more realistic PFT experience.”

The digital workout tool has been slammed on social media as a sneaky way for the government to extract personal info amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“DO NOT — AND WE CANNOT STRESS THIS NEXT PART ENOUGH — DOWNLOAD THIS APP,” tweeted Fight for the Future yesterday. “I’ll pass on this one,” seconded a Twitter user.

Despite the flurry of suspicious social-media posts, the FBI maintains that it “does not collect personal user data from this app; the information remains stored on the device in accordance with FBI.gov’s privacy policy.”
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https://www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/mobile-phones/americans-told-to-avoid-fbi-fitness-app-over-location-tracking-fears/news-story/2e753f7ac1bfa45d296bc39705ba9ae1

mirimir · Mar 25, 2020

Huh? An FBI fitness app? Are people really that gullible?

Krusty · Mar 25, 2020

The FBI must think so, and people being the sheep they are...

I might be showing my age a little but I grew up in a time where there were no mobile phones, so no apps. We ran, swam, cycled, did push-ups, sit-ups, sparred, did weight training, all because we knew it made us fitter and stronger. We didn't need an app on a phone to pat us on the back to tell us we were doing well.

... Anyway, that's enough about me.

guest · Mar 25, 2020

Poland is making quarantined citizens use a selfie app to prove they're staying inside
March 23, 2020
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/corona...-isolation-social-distancing-police-patients/

In response to the global coronavirus pandemic, Poland is asking quarantined residents to prove that they're following the rules and staying at home – by taking selfies. The country launched a phone app on Friday for residents who are under under mandatory 14-day quarantines after returning from abroad, AFP reports.

People who are supposed to be isolating themselves at home take selfies and upload them to the app as proof that they're not outside.

"People in quarantine have a choice: either receive unexpected visits from the police, or download this app," Karol Manys, Digital Ministry spokesman, told AFP.
The "Home Quarantine" app is available in the iTunes app stone. Upon downloading, the app asks you to add your phone number, hunker down in your quarantine location and then follow the instructions for uploading your photographic evidence.

The app uses geolocation and facial recognition technology, and randomly requests selfies. The user has 20 minutes to upload the selfie from safe inside their quarantine – or the police will pay them a visit.
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Singapore developed the TraceTogether app, which uses Bluetooth signals between cellphones to keep track of who people come in contact with, according to ZD Net, which is published by CBS Interactive and TechRepublic.
TraceTogether can estimate the proximity between two people with the app and the duration of their interaction.
It will then identify users who are within 6.5 feet of each other for 30 minutes. The data is stored on the user's phone for 21 days [...]

A similar app is being used in South Korea, according to MIT Technology review.
The app also uses GPS technology to keep track of users' locations, making sure they don't breaking their quarantine.
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hawki · Mar 25, 2020

"Mobile phone industry explores worldwide tracking of users

Talks about global data-sharing to counter coronavirus will raise privacy concerns

The mobile phone industry has explored the creation of a global data-sharing system that could track individuals around the world, as part of an effort to curb the spread of Covid-19...

...a senior official at GSMA, an international standard-setting body for the mobile phone industry, held discussions with at least one company that is capable of tracking individuals globally through their mobile devices, and discussed the possible creation of a global data-sharing system..."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...lores-worldwide-tracking-of-users-coronavirus

xxJackxx · Mar 25, 2020

mirimir said: ↑

Huh? An FBI fitness app? Are people really that gullible?
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Yes, they are! I keep all app usage to a minimum.

Minimalist · Mar 25, 2020

Governments could track COVID-19 lockdowns through social media posts

A research group scrapes more than 500,000 Instagram profiles in Italy to see if people are abiding by the quarantine.
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https://www.cnet.com/news/governments-could-track-covid-19-lockdowns-through-social-media-posts/

guest · Mar 25, 2020

Facial Recognition Companies Profit From COVID-19 By Adding Thermal Imaging (UPDATED)
March 24, 2020
https://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2020/03/facial-recognition-companies-profit.html

The biometrics industry has never been known to miss an opportunity to make a profit. Especially when it comes at the expense of everyone's privacy.

Forbes.com is all too eager to jump on the thermal imaging bandwagon, claiming that Athena Security's facial recognition/thermal imaging software can scan 1000 people per hour.
As Forbes.com points out, what makes Athena's software so unique is their ability to send out real-time alerts to authorities.

"What’s different about Athena’s system, explains Falzone, is its ability to send out immediate alerts to the appropriate parties, who can then make an informed decision on how to act."
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Updated 3/25:
Real-time facial recognition being offered to universities and hospitals for free
The facial biometrics industry has put a new spin on marketing by offering universities and hospitals free real-time facial recognition.

The scariest thing about the proliferation of facial recognition/thermal imaging cameras is it gives law enforcement near god-like powers to identify and quarantine anyone they choose.
DroneUp suggests that law enforcement could use thermal imaging drones as an excuse to monitor people for COVID-19.

That same scenario is being played out across the country, with more than 1,500 police departments using drones to monitor the public. In Michigan, the Hillsdale Sheriff's Office recently purchased a DJI Matrice 210 drone equipped with thermal imaging.
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Three police departments in particular have taken drone surveillance to a whole new level.

The Owensboro Police Department in Kentucky has created a 10-member thermal imaging drone surveillance team.

"The Owensboro Police Department recently created a 10-member Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Team who were trained and certified to fly the department’s $2,300 drone inside city limits."
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guest · Mar 25, 2020

hawki said: ↑

"Mobile phone industry explores worldwide tracking of users
[...]
...a senior official at GSMA, an international standard-setting body for the mobile phone industry, held discussions with at least one company that is capable of tracking individuals globally through their mobile devices, and discussed the possible creation of a global data-sharing system..."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...lores-worldwide-tracking-of-users-coronavirus
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European mobile carriers will share user location data to track coronavirus
Eight major mobile carriers agreed to share customer location data with the European Commission
March 25, 2020
https://appleinsider.com/articles/2...share-user-location-data-to-track-coronavirus

The announcement arrives after Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica, Telecom Italia, Telenor, Telia, A1 Telekom Austria and Vodafone discussed tracking options with European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Thierry Breton on Monday, reports Reuters.

Critics voiced concern over the potentially intrusive nature of the measure, saying a centralized database of location information could easily lead to a surveillance state.
Government officials attempted to allay fears by noting all collected data will be anonymized and destroyed once the pandemic is squashed.

According to the European Data Protection Supervisor, the plan does not run afoul of EU privacy laws.
"The EDPS often stresses that such developments usually do not contain the possibility to step back when the emergency is gone," Wiewiorowski said. "I would like to stress that such solution should be still recognized as extraordinary."
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The EU agreement mirrors a similar move by Slovakia, whose parliament today passed legislation that allows government bodies to use location data to track the movement of those infected with the virus, according to the Financial Times.
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guest · Mar 26, 2020

‘This could get Orwellian really fast’: COVID-19 could end privacy as we know it
As countries scramble to respond to the pandemic, many have turned to surveillance in the name of public health
March 26, 2020
https://www.fastcompany.com/9048226...fast-covid-19-could-end-privacy-as-we-know-it

David Jones had several hours to kill at the Kuala Lumpur airport en route back to Melbourne, so he camped out in a lounge chair and watched as installers set up heat-detecting cameras nearby.
Now, Jones was watching thermal screening cameras being installed for that very purpose—to spot people who could be experiencing a high body temperature, a symptom of the coronavirus.

Even here in the U.S., the White House has considered the use of mobile location data analytics for tracing contact among residents.
But while using this data effectively can save lives, the global mobilization to save people from the scourge of COVID-19 also reveals the urgent need for governments to set policy for sometimes-untested surveillance tech and data use.

“The complexity of surveillance in this age is when something like public health surveillance is implicated in commercial surveillance,” Shapiro says. “There’s no way to disentangle them.”
SPOTTING SYMPTOMS WITH SURVEILLANCE
Pandemic surveillance tech—such as thermal cameras in public transit hubs or drones policing social interaction—has already proliferated in parts of Europe and Asia.
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Tech ethics and privacy advocates suggest city officials should think about whether or not to store data captured by emergency technologies, and decide who has access to it and for what purposes before disaster strikes.
USING DATA TO TRACE DISEASE TRANSMISSION
Though thermal cameras and smart city data isn’t yet being used in the U.S., other kinds of data—particularly mobile location data—is already being tapped to stop the disease’s spread.

This technique, called contact tracing [...]
Currently, there are no federal U.S. laws regulating the use of this data collection technique, and it is unclear how far along the government’s efforts are to use contact tracing methods to understand the path of the virus.
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guest · Mar 26, 2020

Snowden warns: The surveillance states we’re creating now will outlast the coronavirus
Temporary security measures can soon become permanent
March 25, 2020
https://thenextweb.com/neural/2020/...re-creating-now-will-outlast-the-coronavirus/

Governments around the world are using high-tech surveillance measures to combat the coronavirus outbreak. But are they worth it?

The former CIA contractor, whose leaks exposed the scale of spying programs in the US, warns that once this tech is taken out of the box, it will be hard to put it back.

“When we see emergency measures passed, particularly today, they tend to be sticky,” Snowden said in an interview with the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival.
The emergency tends to be expanded. Then the authorities become comfortable with some new power. They start to like it.
“They already know what you’re looking at on the internet,” he said. “They already know where your phone is moving. Now they know what your heart rate is, what your pulse is. What happens when they start to mix these and apply artificial intelligence to it?
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Finding a balance
It’s tough to strike a balance between security and privacy at the best of times, let alone during a global crisis.
The consequences of the measures we introduce today, however, will be permanent. That’s why the tech we deploy now must be proportionate to each phase of the outbreak.

Draconian measures may be tolerable if they get us through the pandemic. But we must also think about the world we want to live in once the coronavirus is contained.
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BriggsAndStratton · Mar 27, 2020

Who did not know this would follow ? This will probably be an expansion of surveillance brought fourth after 2001. The best time to pass these privacy invading measures is when people are scared. You scare people, then they are more likely to approve of these draconian measures....

hawki · Mar 27, 2020

Video of Phone Tracking Visualization Revealing Where Spring Breakers Traveled After Flooding Florida Beaches

https://twitter.com/TectonixGEO/status/1242628347034767361

Minimalist · Mar 27, 2020

Tech Tent: Hand over your virus data

That is the theme of this week's Tech Tent which comes from my attic and the homes of contributors around the world.

Among them, a young Taiwanese journalist Milo Ho-Hsuan Hsieh. He came home to Taipei after a trip to Europe and was put into quarantine for 14 days and told that his phone would be satellite tracked.

Then one morning his phone ran out of battery and 45 minutes later the police came knocking at his door. They wanted to check that he was still at home, not evading quarantine.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52064616

Dermot7 · Mar 28, 2020

Karlin Lillington,
Thu, Mar 26, 2020, 06:00
When an image circulated on Twitter last week showing colour-coded data from more than a million smart thermometers plotted to a map of the United States, it created a sensation.
Areas with fever-level readings from the thermometers, highlighted in orange and red, stood out against cooler colours for normal temperatures. Fever zones closely matched many known coronavirus clusters.
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“Now that we face a public health emergency, there are understandable questions as to whether technological solutions might be useful to slow the spread of the virus and to identify persons who are either infected or who are in noncompliance with public health directives,” says Elizabeth Joh, a professor of law at the University of California, Davis.
The problem is that decisions made in haste and with the justification of emergency are typically disastrous policymaking."
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https://www.irishtimes.com/business...ions-could-leave-a-dangerous-legacy-1.4211980

Minimalist · Mar 29, 2020

Privacy rights may become next victim of killer pandemic

Digital surveillance and smartphone technology may prove helpful in containing the coronavirus pandemic—but some activists fear this could mean lasting harm to privacy and digital rights.
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https://techxplore.com/news/2020-03-privacy-rights-victim-killer-pandemic.html

mirimir · Mar 29, 2020

Well, smartphone technology pretty much already destroys privacy and digital rights

Krusty · Mar 30, 2020

Coronavirus spread can be tracked by phone but your privacy may suffer

Borders, beaches, pubs and churches are closed, large events are cancelled, and travellers are subject to 14 days' isolation — all at significant cost to taxpayers and the economy.

But could telecommunications technology offer a more targeted approach to controlling the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus?

One possibility is to use location history data from the mobile phones of confirmed cases, to help track and trace the spread of infection.

Some people can be contagious without knowing, either because they have not yet developed symptoms, or because their symptoms are mild. These individuals cannot be identified until they become sufficiently unwell to seek medical assistance.

Finding them more quickly could help curb the spread of the disease.
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03...ction-spread-mobile-phone-technology/12101960

But what about privacy?
This suggestion clearly raises complex privacy issues.

All mobile service providers in Australia are required to hold two years of data relating to the use of each mobile phone on their network, including location information.

For anyone who tests positive with COVID-19, this data could be used to list every location where they (or, more accurately, their phone) had been over the preceding few weeks.

Using that list, it would then be possible to identify every phone that had been in close proximity to the person's phone during that time. The owners of those phones could then be tested, even though they may not necessarily have developed symptoms or suspected that they had come into contact with the coronavirus.

The government could do this in a systematic way.

It could assemble everyone's location history into a single, searchable database that could then be cross-referenced against the locations of known clusters of infection.

This would allow contact tracing throughout the entire population, creating a more proactive way to track down suspected cases.

You may well ask: do we want the government to assemble a searchable database showing the locations of almost every person over 16 in Australia over the past month?
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Several countries are already using mobile phone data in the fight against the coronavirus.

The UK government is reportedly in talks with major mobile phone operators to use location data to analyse the outbreak's spread.

India, Hong Kong, Israel, Austria, Belgium, Germany are also among the list of countries taking advantage of mobile data to tackle the pandemic.

The Singapore government has launched an app called Trace Together, which allows mobile users to voluntarily share their location data. Iran's leaders have been accused of being rather less transparent, amid reports that its coronavirus "diagnosis" app also logs people's whereabouts.
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But is it even legal?[...]
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guest · Mar 30, 2020

Phone location data being used to track Americans amid coronavirus outbreak, report says
The data is coming from companies in the mobile ad industry
March 30, 2020
https://www.cnet.com/news/phone-loc...ricans-amid-coronavirus-outbreak-report-says/

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention along with state and local officials are receiving reports about the "presence and movement of people in certain areas of geographic interest" based on phone data, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

The phone data, which has been stripped of personally identifiable information, is largely coming from tech companies and data providers in the mobile ad industry, the Journal reported on Saturday, citing "people familiar with the matter." The goal is reportedly to create a portal for government officials that holds location data for as many as 500 cities to plan COVID-19 response.

In an emailed statement Monday, CDC spokesman Benjamin Haynes said the agency isn't currently participating in an effort to use "phone application data."
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Governments in China, Singapore and South Korea have reportedly used phone location data to track coronavirus patients. While some say similar measures could be a helpful tool for health authorities in the US, others have expressed concerns.
In a letter to the White House earlier this month, Sen. Ed Markey cautioned that "unless carefully circumscribed, location data can reveal deeply sensitive information about people's private lives.

"The administration must take extreme care not to implement location data-use policies that run the risk of violating Americans' privacy," the Massachusetts Democrat said.
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guest · Mar 30, 2020

Germany aims to launch Singapore-style coronavirus app in weeks
March 30, 2020
https://in.reuters.com/article/heal...-style-coronavirus-app-in-weeks-idINKBN21H2AP

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.

Germans are deeply suspicious of digital surveillance, and the use of individual smartphone location data to track the spread of the pandemic would be illegal under national and European Union privacy laws.
But a fast-moving debate has yielded agreement across party lines that it would be useful and acceptable to track close-proximity Bluetooth ‘handshakes’ between smartphones.

“We are confident we can release the solution in the next few weeks,” said the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecoms, Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI).
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Health Minister Jens Spahn has called for an urgent debate on the use of smartphone technology to manage the coronavirus once containment efforts [...]
Germany’s data protection commissioner, Ulrich Kelber, has supported the use of location and contact data shared on a voluntary basis, describing it as “incredibly useful”.

Privacy advocates see no inherent contradiction between smartphone tracking and data protection and say that, done the right way, such contact tracing can make a valuable contribution to containing the coronavirus.

"Rapid contact tracing is a central precondition for it to be possible to loosen the current lockdown in the foreseeable future," academics Johannes Abeler and Matthias Baecker, and privacy campaigner Ulf Buermeyer, wrote for Netzpolitik.org here
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