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Contact tracing via mobile location data is having a moment rn, but it seems entirely beside the point even if it is rigorously privacy-preserving. It smells like tech solutionism to me. Disclaimer: I'm no epidemiologist but I do know about tech, infrastructure, and data ethics.
2/ Consider all the things that would have to be in place for contract-tracing via mobile data to even make a dent in infection rates:
- access to testing
- routine testing
- free testing
- access to treatment
- free treatment
- access to testing
- routine testing
- free testing
- access to treatment
- free treatment
3/
- raw materials for testing, e.g., nasopharyngeal swabs, chemical reagents, public health labs
- PPE for the HCP's doing testing
- adequate PPE for just going out in the world
- paid leave for everyone who tests positive & gets contact notices
- subsidized mobile data
- raw materials for testing, e.g., nasopharyngeal swabs, chemical reagents, public health labs
- PPE for the HCP's doing testing
- adequate PPE for just going out in the world
- paid leave for everyone who tests positive & gets contact notices
- subsidized mobile data
4/
- subsidized mobile devices with adequate specs
- OS updates pushed to mobile devices, e.g., no more wonky Android versions that are mostly spyware
- effective government software procurement
- coordination between feds and states and local govt's
- subsidized mobile devices with adequate specs
- OS updates pushed to mobile devices, e.g., no more wonky Android versions that are mostly spyware
- effective government software procurement
- coordination between feds and states and local govt's
5/
- trustworthy data collection, storage, expiration and governance that meets even minimal privacy regs
- data governance that absolutely limits data from third-parties, repurposing and scraping and all the invasive bs
- near-universal adoption of whatever app gets pushed
- trustworthy data collection, storage, expiration and governance that meets even minimal privacy regs
- data governance that absolutely limits data from third-parties, repurposing and scraping and all the invasive bs
- near-universal adoption of whatever app gets pushed
6/
- effective communication across many languages and fractured media landscapes about expectations or requirements to use app
- coordinated efforts to use just one app nationally
Data means nothing if we lack means to act upon it, yet we are incapable of doing any of these.
- effective communication across many languages and fractured media landscapes about expectations or requirements to use app
- coordinated efforts to use just one app nationally
Data means nothing if we lack means to act upon it, yet we are incapable of doing any of these.
7/ There are a lot of fascinating, well-meaning and valuable attempts to make sense of contact-tracing in a privacy-preserving manner. This one, in particular, is dope. https://twitter.com/mikarv/status/1246124667355660291?s=20
8/ But let's be honest that it all will probably look a lot more like Palantir and Clearview AI teaming up to do ... something ... expensively and creepily. https://www.wsj.com/articles/to-track-virus-governments-weigh-surveillance-tools-that-push-privacy-limits-11584479841
9/ Clearview, btw, is staffed with fucking Nazis, founded by a phishing scammer, and their privacy policy is just a stack of MAGA hats in the corner. We should probably not give Nazis geolocated biometric data, huh? https://www.huffpost.com/entry/clearview-ai-facial-recognition-alt-right_n_5e7d028bc5b6cb08a92a5c48
10/ For all the fascination with surveillance in Asian countries doing a better job at outbreak suppression, little attention has been paid to their societal maintenance practices, like paying someone to take temps or managing essential supply chains. https://www.wired.com/story/phones-track-spread-covid19-good-idea/
11/ My point is NOT to crap on well-intended efforts to do something, but to raise the question of which something must be done. We are not lacking for data or apps or brokers that know where we are down to a meter, we are lacking for what we might quaintly call a Common Good.
12/ And Tech must be honest that it has led the charge on dismantling and privatizing the Common Good for those sweet marginal gains. COVID-19 in the US is what that looks like. Tech may know how to speak about 'X'-for-good but it knows very little about pursuing a Common Good.
13/ Tech will need to get a lot better at visualizing, supporting, funding, pursuing, and *humbly taking a back seat to* the boring slog of maintaining the Common Good in the years ahead if it actually cares about resiliency.
