Alex Christoforou
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
“In the fight against Covid-19, technology can help.”
The world is sleepwalking into a surveillance state. The march towards an Orwellian society is closer than ever, as governments have used COVID-19 as a perfect cover to implement totalitarian measures to track citizens that amount to human rights violations to “flatten the pandemic curve.”
The latest example is coming from France’s health minister Olivier Véran and digital minister Cédric O, who announced in an interview with Le Monde that the French government is developing a smartphone app that will track citizens, by warning them if they come into contact with a COVID-19 carrier.
“In the fight against Covid-19, technology can help,” O told the French newspaper. “Nothing will be decided without broad debate.”
France’s digital minister said the app project is called “StopCovid” – and will be voluntarily downloaded on smartphones — will utilize the phone’s Bluetooth capabilities to notify users if they come into proximity to a carrier. The app only works if virus carriers and others have the software operating on the phone.
“The application would simply inform you that you have been in contact in the previous days with someone who tested positive,” O said, adding that developers have been working on the app for several days.
French law currently prohibits smartphone tracking, unlike China and South Korea, that monitor their citizens to make sure COVID-19 carriers are quarantining at home.
Several lawmakers in France have told President Emmanuel Macron’s parliament that they would be opposed to geo-tracking civilians.
O told the French paper that the app uses Bluetooth and not geolocation and reaffirmed that the government would not track people.
“We shouldn’t start a mind-trip over how repressive an application it would be,” the minister said. “Our scenario is one of a voluntary tool, that could be un-installed at any time. Nobody will have access to the list of contaminated people and it’ll be impossible to know who contaminated who.”
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Several EU countries are putting these out, for what they call data ‘donations’. Since cell phones are not a permanent structure in our bodies, forced surveillance is still quite a few steps away. A cell phone is not a right. You do have the right to turn it off though, to leave it at home, or to not even have one. Or to use a dumb phone.
As to practical application of such an app. That kind of data could indeed be invaluable some day. Right now it’s just corona.
I prefer not to have a cell phone. I live happily without it. Thanks, but no thanks!