PRIVACY IN A PANDEMIC - The Economic Transcript

Drones patrolling the streets. Apps tracing your movements. Comparing today’s reality to Orwellian dystopia may be a cliché, but it bears some element of truth. Throughout history, crises have been used by governments to consolidate and expand their powers. This pandemic is no different. Governments, both in India and elsewhere, have allocated to themselves extraordinary powers to arrest the spread of the pandemic. These measures may be necessary but, in the absence of a regulatory framework, will the government give these up after the pandemic, or is the Big State here to stay?

It’s been proven that the best way to combat the COVID-19 virus is to test and trace. Given a large number of asymptomatic cases, this is the only effective method to track the number of cases. Taking the advice of epidemiologists, governments across the world have launched numerous apps to trace people’s movement. In February, China made mandatory the downloading of an app which informed people whether to quarantine and gave location data directly to the government. In India, the Aarogya Setu app claims to notify the user every time he or she comes into close contact with someone suspected to have the virus. Till now, however, only 5.6% of India’s population has downloaded the app, far lower than the optimum 60%. An autocratic regime can make its citizens mandatorily download such apps, democracies have to coax and cajole.

Germany faced a tough challenge in this regard. Its initial plans for an app that centrally stored data faced significant opposition from academia and activists. In Germany at least, the memories of an all-powerful, all-knowing State are too vivid to dismiss. The concern that most people cite is not what the government will do during the pandemic but rather what it will do after. Among the enhanced security measures that the U.S., put in place in the anger after 9/11, were laws with pernicious effects on civil liberties. Just like a lion that’s tasted human blood, surveillance power once acquired by governments, will not be easily given up. Given all of this, the scepticism of citizens may be very well-founded. They, after all, fear that in defeating the virus, we will create a Big State watching every move of its citizens. Such an institution would not only be dystopian, but it would also exercise, with the aid of modern technology, far greater control over the lives of its people than even Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia.

And yet, without these apps, controlling the pandemic would be a gargantuan task. One which may not even be feasible. So, how do we create a system where citizens can safely download such apps without any fear of governmental overreach or infringement of civil liberties? Norway may prove to be a good example. It recently adopted a law that requires governments to delete, every 30 days, any data that is collected. Such a measure would ensure that any data collected during this time frame, is not misused later.

This does not, however, address the larger issue at stake. Till when will such surveillance go on? And now that governments know that this works, what stops them from unveiling such a program mandatorily in the future? Legislative bodies, across the world, need to seriously deliberate upon and examine critical issues regarding governmental surveillance activities and formulate laws to deal with any possible abuse. Legislation delineating all possible circumstances in which use of such technology would be permissible should be debated and discussed. The setting up of regulatory agencies will also become essential as such technology becomes more and more widely used.

The Coronavirus pandemic has brought to the forefront these issues of privacy that have been simmering on the back burner for too long. A Pandora’s Box of questions regarding the balance between privacy and security has been opened in the backdrop of the decades long debate regarding the powers and limits of the State that has been reignited. Democracy has been said to be in decline with the rise of elected autocrats across the world. In such a world, the rights of citizens will have to be protected fiercely against a State that will try its best to expand its powers. These surveillance apps challenge our most basic human right- the right to live, and to live without interference. And that is why, when the pandemic ends, these issues of privacy will become more important than ever.

BY ANOUSHKA KOTHARI (30/4/20)

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