State surveillance during COVID-19

Concern is growing about the use of technological surveillance under COVID-19. While there are public health uses for technology such as contact tracing, the danger of overreach is always present, especially in countries with a history of authoritarianism. Like pre-pandemic times, the discourse about surveillance under COVID-19 is dominated by the false dichotomy of security vs. freedom. 

Digital surveillance based on geolocation is an easy measure for states to implement to track the spread of the virus. While it can be helpful to track the whereabouts of infected people—and who they’ve come in contact with—this raises important questions of privacy and government surveillance. We know from history that once a restriction is implemented (like taking off our shoes at airports), it can become normalized, allowing the government to continue the restriction without justification.  

States are gathering much more than just location information—including personal information like pictures, texts, emails, and much more. Under COVID-19, governments are also collecting more health and employment information, using “voluntary” apps that require citizens’ permission to share the data in exchange for certain services, or for state employees. Even in democratic governments, this violates privacy. Information can and has been be used to target activists and criminalize protesters. 

There’s also a real concern of data breaches, how this information is stored, and who has access to it. Around the world there have been countless cases of security service employees using private information for their own personal use and selling of private information.  

In March, Israel launched mobile phone tracking technology to trace Israelis diagnosed with COVID-19. Civil society protested and the matter went to the Supreme Court. The decision allowed the surveillance to continue as long as a parliamentary group oversaw the program. In July it was made public that over 50% of the people sent to quarantine based on the tracking technology were sent by mistake and had not been in the proximity of anyone infected by the virus. Furthermore, only 3.5% of those sent to quarantine after being close to an infected person actually had become infected themselves, and yet the program continues.