One aspect I am seriously worried about during this pandemic is data security of sensitive health data of individuals. Many people are posting public messages with the name, age and hospital details of patients needing urgent support. This is a serious problem. (mini thread)

These posts are public and will be read by massive AIs who will crawl this data and compile datasets. Especially when identifiable person specific information is present, then this will be used by adversaries for whichever calculation: about financial solvency, health etc.

Even when direct person specific information is not present, please be aware that it can be guessed: by location, network connections, post content, and various types of meta data. This will be most certainly used in this fashion by nefarious AIs.

Moreover, I have seen many posts explicitly soliciting information. This is a very dangerous practice. Please don’t provide such information in public. And even in private, please only provide it when you are 100% certain about who the other side is and what their intentions are.

Please don’t underestimate the level of unscrupulousness by data-louts and data-scouts. Please ask yourself if you would give the data to the government. Well at least, the government has democratic accountability. The NGOs/agencies don’t have that, if you even know who they are.

I will particularly warm against providing data to political parties, even political parties you might support. This is a dangerous trend of data aggregation- most people may not be aware of the dangers.

Only give data to personal friends, over a channel you trust, even in need!

I know people are very stressed, and a pandemic is a deeply stressful time. But please do maintain good data hygiene, it is as important as sanitary hygiene. The AIs that will crunch these data are no less dangerous than viruses, they are all looking for a way to defeat you.

Good practices:
1) Maintain strong social network in the immediate circle.
2) Make calls and inquire how friends, family or relatives are doing. Will boost the morale.
3) Know the emergency contacts in your local area.
4) Support people in quarantine/infection. Help with errands.

If you are a voluntary organization helping patients or their families,

1) Don’t ask for people’s data publicly.
2) Don’t maintain digital records, even private.
3) Have open organizational structures.
4) Cooperate with the Government in dealing with emergencies.
(End of thread)