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Protecting Civil Liberties During A Public Health CrisisAcross the world, public health authorities are working to contain the spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019). In pursuit of this urgent and necessary task, many government agencies are collecting and analyzing personal information about large numbers of identifiable people, including their health, travel and personal relationships. As our society struggles with how best to minimize the spread of this disease, we must carefully consider the way that "big data" containment tools impact our digital liberties. Special efforts by public health agencies to combat the spread of COVID-19 are warranted. In the digital world as in the physical world, public policy must reflect a balance between collective good and civil liberties in order to protect the health and safety of our society from communicable disease outbreaks. It is important, however, that any extraordinary measures used to manage a specific crisis must not become permanent fixtures in the landscape of government intrusions into daily life. There is historical precedent for life-saving programs such as these, and their intrusions on digital liberties, to outlive their urgency. Thus, any data collection and digital monitoring of potential carriers of COVID-19 should take into consideration and commit to these principles:
In light of these principles, we are troubled by reports about how the Chinese government is using "big data" to contain COVID-19. Reportedly, that government is requiring its citizens to download software to their phones and then use their phones to scan QR codes when they arrive at checkpoints for entry to public spaces (e.g., trains and malls). This software assigns each citizen a color code (i.e., green, yellow, or red) to indicate their health status. The software dictates whether each citizen should be quarantined and whether they may enter public spaces. The software also sends information to the local police. The Chinese government says it is only using this system to identify people who may be infected. Citizens report they have been quarantined because this tracking system identified contact between them and an infected person. We also have questions about a new rule from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It requires airline companies to collect the name and contact information of all passengers and crew arriving in the United States on international flights, and to transmit this information to the CDC within 24 hours of an order to do so. The CDC intends to use this information for "contact tracing," that is, to rapidly identify people who were in contact with an infected person, so those contacted people can be timely notified, tested and possibly quarantined. Such data processing may be necessary and proportionate to the public health need. But we must not lose sight of the great sensitivity of the personal data at issue - this data paints a clear picture of the travel, health and personal relationships of airline passengers. EFF would like the CDC to explain what it will do to ensure this sensitive data is used only to contain communicable diseases. For example, what measures will ensure this data is purged when no longer helpful to contact tracing? Also, what safeguards will ensure this newly collected data is not used by police for ordinary crime fighting, or by ICE for immigration enforcement? EFF has long advocated against digital surveillance by government and corporations of our movements, health and personal relationships, and against big data systems that can turn our lives into open books. Such data processing often invades our privacy, deters our free speech and association, and disparately burdens racial minorities. Some use of big data may now be warranted as public health officials work to contain COVID-19. But it must be medically necessary, as determined by public health experts; any new processing of personal data must be proportionate to the actual need; people must not be scrutinized because of their nationality or other demographic factors; and any new government powers must expire when the disease is contained. - See also: * JAMA: U.S. Emergency Legal Responses To Novel Coronavirus: Balancing Public Health And Civil Liberties. * BBC: Coronavirus: Could The U.S. Do What Italy Has Done? * The Conversation: If I Get Sick With Coronavirus, Can Donald Trump Make Me Stay Home? - Posted on March 11, 2020 |
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