The Trucker 060120

THETRUCKER.COM
I am sick of COVID-19. I am sick of staying
home. I am sick of everything being closed.
I am sick of people getting sick and dying. I am
sick of not knowing how best to move forward.
I am sick of not knowing when this will end.
In other words, I am sick of this whole
damn mess. And I don’t think I am alone.
We are living in crazy times. COVID-19
has, quite simply, changed everything. The
way we live and work has changed, for likely
forever.
Now, before you think I am an eternal pessimist,
I want to say that I do think we will
come through this better and stronger — albeit
different — than we were before. We have
faced crises before and have always prevailed.
However, as is the case immediately following
most catastrophes, the government may
restrict certain liberties we previously enjoyed
in order to gain control over the situation. For
example, 45 days after 9/11, the government
passed the Patriot Act. In essence, the act allowed
the government to search things — such
as telephone, email and financial records —
without a court order. Many of the provisions
of the original Patriot Act were set to expire
Dec. 31, 2005; however, many of the provisions
have been routinely reauthorized and are
valid today. Many were just reauthorized in
March of this year.
All this brings me to our current situation.
It appears that the best way to contain the
spread of COVID-19 in a partially opened
economy is through: (i) extensive testing;
(ii) use of personal protective equipment; and
(iii) the ability to track individuals who have
the virus or who have been in contact with
those who have the virus.
It is the last one that gives me pause.
Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South
Korea have all employed this method and have
enjoyed “success.” (I hate to say success, as
people are still dying.) However, in addition to
using humans to trace the virus, they also employed
surveillance technology. This is where
my heartburn begins.
Apparently, the U.S. and several European
countries are now considering a similar use
of surveillance technology to help track those
who have the virus or who have been in contact
with those folks. In fact, Google has been sharing
some of its information on the location and
movement of its users to assist researchers and
doctors as they combat the virus. Moreover,
a team at MIT has developed a proximitytracking
application for those who have been in
contact with COVID-19 patients. In addition,
Google and Apple have already developed
Perspective June 1-14, 2020 • 13
Pandemics, emergency situations call digital privacy protection into question
Brad Klepper
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apps to allow for voluntary contact tracing.
Now here is where I do a bit of disclosure
about myself. For what it is worth, I am NOT
a hard-core conservative, nor do I value a robust
economy over human life. I am also NOT
a far-left liberal who believes that the economy
doesn’t matter and the government should do
whatever is necessary to support me through
this crisis. I consider myself one of the few remaining
moderates in the world (there are actually
three of us, and we work eight-hour shifts
so someone is always on duty).
With all that being said, I understand that
there is some need for the government to track
the spread of the disease and that, like it or not,
some surveillance will likely be implemented.
My concern is with what information will be
gathered, how long will it be gathered and how
will it be used.
For example, South Korea collects data
from cellphones, GPS, public transportation,
credit-card data, immigration data and other
sources. While all this information can be useful
in tracking people’s movements, I struggle
with the additional implications.
For instance, if the “magic” number of
days for a person to be quarantined is 14,
I would assume this would be the relevant
period of time I would need to be “tracked.”
However, what happens to my information
after the 14 days? Is it deleted or erased? I
doubt it. However, it should be. If 14 days is
the magic number, then there is no need for
the government — or anybody else — to know
where I am and what I am doing beyond that
time frame.
Also, what about my private information
that such surveillance may disclose? What if
I am visiting the oncologist for cancer treatment?
Or meeting with my lawyer? Does the
government (or anyone else) need to know this
information?
Moreover, can you imagine the dollar value
associated with the history of everyone’s movements?
What would a company/person pay to
have that information? To be able to know all
that information is invaluable. Sure, some of it
is already available, but nothing to this extent.
I guess, at the end of the day, I understand
that some of this information may be necessary
to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and save
lives. I am at peace with that. However, there
need to be safeguards put into place to guarantee
that our privacy is protected and that only
the information that is necessary is used —and
only for the relevant time frame.
In other words, we need a digital bill of
rights.
I wish I could say that this was totally my
idea, but it is not. It has been around for years.
The current crisis has just brought it back to the
forefront. At the Global Forum on Artificial Intelligence
last year, French President Emmanuel
Macron argued for government to implement
a bill of rights providing for fundamental
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