Surveillance in the Time of Pandemic - ThreatWire

The use of tech surveillance has been increasing due to the covid-19 pandemic across the globe.  Several governments have taken to tracking location data via mobile carriers to check is patients who should be isolated are staying isolated, as well as tracking how well their stay-at-home or quarantine orders are holding up. Carriers in Italy, Germany, and Austria within the European Union are continuously sharing data with health authorities, though this data is anonymized and aggregated to comply with GDPR. According to law enforcement in Italy, movement is down by 60 percent in one coronavirus hotbed.

Israel has also authorized location data tracking for patients who have tested positive and should be under quarantine during the hopefully limited time during this pandemic. But these aren’t the only countries using cellphone location data with Iran using an app called AC 19, to China’s tracking, and Taiwan’s electronic fencing or quarantined people. While South Korea has been lauded for their strict efforts to beat outbreaks, they’re also using location data to allow the public to check if they’ve been in contact with someone who has coronavirus.

Chinese state surveillance includes facial recognition that can detect identities with up to 95% accuracy even if they’re wearing a mask. The company behind this technology, Hanwang, says they’ve received high demand for masked facial recognition with a high success rate, including at police stations, railways and office towers, plus hospitals as well.

Poland is taking a different approach. In order to ensure people are quarantining themselves correctly, there use the Home Quarantine app to make people register a selfie then periodically send new selfies through the app or face a police alert. If they don’t download and use the app, they may receive unexpected visits from police.

Users can turn off location tracking via their phones settings, but some countries do make this kind of surveillance a requirement, pandemic or not.

Support me on alternative platforms! https://snubsie.com/support

Shop ThreatWire Merch! - https://snubsie.com/shop

https://www.youtube.com/shannonmorse --  subscribe to my new channel!

ThreatWire is only possible because of our Patreon patrons! https://www.patreon.com/threatwire