An advice to technology C-Class, a matter of double responsibility.
The COVID-19 pandemic allows governments to employ “extraordinary measures” in favour of the public good, measure that could have significant effects in information policies (Cornelius, 2010). Government agencies around the world, along with private companies, are collecting and exploiting personal identifiable information (PII) to generate valuable insights to help support the crisis. For example, while biometric solutions such like live camera surveillance for tracking the disease’s spread (Cimpanu, 2020) are being used in China and South Korea, Israel and the US are preparing similar surveillance measures. Private players could have a profound impact too, such is the case for the European level surveillance for COVID-19 (ECDPC, 2020) and telehealth companies (Knight, 2020).
It seems to be no space for handling surveillance and its impact on privacy, at least not for now. Despite media and civil liberties activist and organizations are exposing the issue, the need to control the COVID-19 global pandemic is priority.
Let analyze the implications for as all as C-Suit technology executives,. First, only the state has the authority and power to protect data, but history shown that policing itself tend to be somehow difficult for the government (Cornelius, 2010). Second, due to information can be used once it is accessible, some serious concerns arise from the private sector actors. So, here is where our responsability both as citizens and as accountable information security managers should manifest itself in term of action. We usually have almost all aveneneus of information covered, al data flows analyzed. But, COVID-19 special situation could, and probably will, affect the way in which we make decisions. We will probably not deny any ask for information made by government to improve the situation, just be sure to do things the right way and get covered.
I’m trying to think one step forward, a an executive but more as a cityzen and father, if we start resigning civil rights in the name of… (covid-19 today), How much privacy we will claim after the crisis ends?
References:
Cimpanu, C. (2020). US, Israel, South Korea, and China look at intrusive surveillance solutions for tracking COVID-19. ZDNET. https://www.zdnet.com/article/us-israel-south-korea-and-china-look-at-intrusive-surveillance-solutions-for-tracking-covid-19/
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDPC). (2020). Case definition and European surveillance for COVID-19, as of 2 March 2020. European Union. https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/case-definition-and-european-surveillance-human-infection-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov
Knight, W. (2020). Phones Could Track the Spread of Covid-19. Is It a Good Idea?. WIRED. https://www.wired.com/story/phones-track-spread-covid19-good-idea/
Cornelius, I. (2010). Censorship, freedom of speech and freedom of expression and Arguments for protecting speech.
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