Israel passes emergency law to use mobile data for COVID-19 contact tracing March 18, 2020 https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/18/i...use-mobile-data-for-covid-19-contact-tracing/
COVID-19 Could Provide Cover for Domestic Surveillance Expansion The use of location data to help track and manage the pandemic should come with meaningful safeguards and expiration dates, privacy experts say March 16, 2020 https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/...ide-cover-for-domestic-surveillance-expansion The New York Times: To Track Coronavirus, Israel Moves to Tap Secret Trove of Cellphone Data
"U.S. government, tech industry discussing ways to harness location data to combat coronavirus WASHINGTON – The U.S. government is in active talks with Facebook, Google and a wide array of tech companies and health experts about how they can use data gleaned from Americans’ phones to combat the novel coronavirus, including tracking whether people are keeping one another at safe distances to stem the outbreak..." https://www.seattletimes.com/busine...-harness-location-data-to-combat-coronavirus/
European mobile operators share data for coronavirus fight March 18, 2020 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...hare-data-for-coronavirus-fight-idUSKBN2152C2
The Value and Ethics of Using Phone Data to Monitor Covid-19 https://www.wired.com/story/value-ethics-using-phone-data-monitor-covid-19/
Tech companies could face more pressure to share location data with governments to fight coronavirus In Israel and England, they’re already doing it March 20, 2020 https://www.theverge.com/interface/...-government-israel-england-facebook-google-o2
Hong Kong is using tracker wristbands to geofence people under coronavirus quarantine March 19, 2020 https://qz.com/1822215/hong-kong-uses-tracking-wristbands-for-coronavirus-quarantine/
Surprised that this isn't just the tip of the iceberg. Seeing too many examples of "free world" governments unable to control the spread by simply relying on their citizens to do the right thing. So what we have are half measures which are like putting 1/4" speed bumps on the roads. In the western free world there are too many people who are too dumb, too careless and too "me first" for self containment to work. Want to go to Spring Break in Florida? Have fun! See you soon! Do you need a drive to the airport, son? Don't forget to take your sunblock. Mom and I will be in Vegas. To slow this down, you would need to have martial law declared and the military and police enforce quarantines with life altering consequences for transgressors. Each city would need to build their own "containment camp" on the outskirts. I don't know of any democracies that would have the stomach to do this. It is a civil war with an unseen enemy and no one has the stomach for war anymore. That may change.
UK privacy activists raise fears over social distancing tracking March 20, 2020 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-fears-social-distancing-tracking-coronavirus
The government might want your phone location data to fight coronavirus. Here’s why that could be okay March 18, 2020 https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/3/18/21184160/government-location-data-coronavirus
The case for Endgame C: stop almost everything, restart when coronavirus is gone https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03...for-endgame-c-stop-almost-everything/12077096
Governments Haven’t Shown Location Surveillance Would Help Contain COVID-19 March 21, 2020 https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/...tion-surveillance-would-help-contain-covid-19
Privacy fears as India hand stamps suspects March 21, 2020 https://www.thedailystar.net/asia/news/privacy-fears-india-hand-stamps-suspects-1883578
UK Coronavirus Bill relaxes restrictions on mass surveillance powers March 20, 2020 https://www.computerweekly.com/news...axes-restrictions-on-mass-surveillance-powers
It's not only surveilance, it's also habeus corpus and basic due process. Fortunately, lawmakers from both parties have already voiced strong opposition, but it does show the current mentality of Barr's DOJ. "DOJ seeks new emergency powers amid coronavirus pandemic One of the requests to Congress would allow the department to petition a judge to indefinitely detain someone during an emergency. The Justice Department has quietly asked Congress for the ability to ask chief judges to detain people indefinitely without trial during emergencies — part of a push for new powers that comes as the coronavirus spreads through the United States..." https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/21/doj-coronavirus-emergency-powers-140023
It's not a forum to talk politics, but... "...he has cited the pandemic as a reason for heightening border restrictions and restricting asylum claims."
Wonder what ? That this pandemic was not accident but planned instead? Who knows...I would not be surprised... But accident or not, this is again one more opportunity for those in power to increase surveillance step-by-step. And after the pandemic is over the tracking will be the new "normal" EDIT: And if those in power want to turn the whole Earth into one big prison....then good luck with that...not going to happen with 7.8 billion inmates...
That is probable. Tracking power should be reverted after outbreaks will be over, but I suspect they will be not reverted...
Yea it's just too much power for those in charge to resist (power corrupts and absolute power and so on....). There are already too few countries left that are truly free (all blue) in the four categories listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_freedom_indices#List_by_country EDIT: Nature article from 2015. A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985 And under Affiliations sections, one of the institutes listed is: "Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China Xing-Yi Ge & Zhengli-Li Shi " Level four (study the most dangerous stuff) Virology Institute in the same city that they say COVID-19 started? EDIT2: Nature 2017: Inside the Chinese lab poised to study world's most dangerous pathogens https://www.nature.com/news/inside-...tudy-world-s-most-dangerous-pathogens-1.21487 Nature Editor's note: That's cute but Im not interested what scientists believe, I am only interested of currently known facts. And they are right now: 1. There is Biosafety level 4 Virus Lab in Wuhan, China. 2. There has been virus escapes before in China. 3. First cases of COVID-19 disease (virus SARS-CoV-2) started in Wuhan.
I was joking. Seriously. Really. 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?
It's time to track people's smartphones to ensure they self-isolate during this global pandemic, says WHO boffin https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/23/track_phones_coronavirus_who/
As Coronavirus Surveillance Escalates, Personal Privacy Plummets March 23, 2020 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/technology/coronavirus-surveillance-tracking-privacy.html
I think WHO is doing good research, guidance for people, communities, but they also see just one side of the coin.
Well, they need to know where you've been, who you've met, and how close to them you got. And then, given your health status, they need to know and control where you go, and who you meet. That is, just about everything