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Covid-19 Is Making Mass Surveillance Our New Normal
Fear of the pandemic is overwhelming our desire for privacy
Covid-19 is a terrifying thing. The virus is incredibly contagious, lethal to the vulnerable, and we do not have a cure. It has killed over 100,000 people and the media is replete with models that suggest millions more may die. This dark and depressing picture has cultivated a pervasive atmosphere of fear — does that person coughing have the coronavirus? Does my flatmate, who went for a walk this morning? Do I?
In these circumstances, it’s understandable why so many have welcomed the emergence of mass surveillance as a weapon against the virus. Politicians and technologists alike have touted the potential of contact tracing in particular, which involves figuring out who an infected person has been in contact with, and trying to prevent them from infecting others. In this way, surveillance is offered as a salve to our uncertainty, a necessary evil to fight the bigger enemy.
We should not necessarily be so quick to embrace our new saviour. Yes, contact tracing is a potent way to contain the virus and flatten the curve. But contact tracing does not necessarily require the unprecedented level of surveillance that many states have jumped to embrace. We should be conscious of what we stand to lose as the Overton…
