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EU warns: privacy cannot be violated under the pretext of coronavirus



Google and Apple are implementing a common Contact Tracing API mechanism in their operating systems to track user contacts and transfer this data to third parties. It is assumed that access to the API will be provided by software services that help curb the spread of coronavirus. Perhaps the modification of the OS is made by order of the American authorities, who want to streamline the collection of data on people's contacts.

Contacts will be tracked using the Bluetooth Low Energy protocol.

On April 16, 2020, the European Commission published its recommendations. The EU executive body said that software applications that help curb the spread of the new coronavirus should not collect user location data, reports Reuters.

Doctors want to be able to identify who each patient has contacted, for subsequent quarantine of potentially infected individuals. The main question is how to collect such information without violating the right to privacy.

Contact Tracing API system diagram






To date, 28 countries have already launched contact tracking applications based on GPS or Bluetooth data, including 11 European countries. Another 11 countries are developing such applications and may soon launch, according to an analysis by Linklaters law firm .

As of April 15, 2020, the following European countries have launched contact tracking systems based on mobile phones:

  • Austria
  • Armenia
  • Belgium
  • Bulgaria
  • Georgia
  • Iceland
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Russia
  • Romania
  • Czech Republic

In developing:

  • Germany
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Netherlands
  • France

The European Commission warns against abuse in this area. The use of applications should be voluntary and not include any types of data that pinpoint the location of people: “Location data are not necessary and are not recommended for collection to track contacts, as the goal is not to monitor the movements of individuals or performance their prescriptions, ”the document says. Earlier, Council of Europe Commissioner Dunia Mijatovic expressed concern that the coronavirus pandemic is becoming a pretext for introducing disproportionate restrictions on legislation, while separately mentioning Russia.

The technical details of the Contact Tracing API implementation are not yet known. Typically, application developers can access the geolocation of phones. But here is a special case, because we are talking about a global audience.

Google and Apple have not yet decided whether to provide geolocation data along with contact data. Although for infectious disease specialists this is certainly useful information, since it helps to localize foci of infection.

In an April Pew Research Center poll, US citizens were sharply divided over the government’s tracking of people who tested positive for the virus: 52% said it was acceptable and 48% said it was unacceptable.

The authors of the study from the Big Data Institute of the University of Oxford concluded: approximatelytwo-thirds of the country's population should be involved in contact tracing in order for the system to be effective .

But if such a system is deployed, then it will be difficult to collapse it later , warns Edward Snowden, a former CIA official who exposed several CIA and NSA spyware programs: “The pandemic will end, but the surveillance of the population will remain. Temporary measures will quickly become permanent. ”

“You should never miss a good crisis, ” Winston Churchill said , and this phrase is the motto of any government that seeks to tighten control over its citizens using appropriate crises, including terrorist attacks and the coronavirus pandemic.

“When we see that emergency measures are being taken, especially today, it is usually difficult to abandon them afterwards,” Snowden said in an interview via videoconferencing at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival. - Emergency measures tend to expand. Then the government gradually gets used to the new powers. She’s starting to like it. ”

For example, tracking the location of mobile phones of all citizens helps determine who was in contact with an infected person or who left the quarantine zone. This can be a powerful method of tracking the spread of the virus and the movement of its carriers. It is tempting to use this tool to track terrorists, but it can be used against any other potential enemies of the state, Snowden believes.



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