How Big Brother is helping to fight COVID-19

Following the unprecedented disruption created by COVID-19, many governments are increasingly looking at using data from contact-tracing apps to help their populations return to some semblance of normality. This article looks at the benefits of using data to fight this pandemic, but also the privacy concerns and problems this brings.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused economic and societal gridlock around the globe. Contact-tracing apps are one of the ways in which a number of governments have chosen to begin tackling the problem, and these have already been used in South Korea and Taiwan to effectively find infected people and isolate them from the rest of the population. It has also allowed these countries to ease the lockdowns in certain regions, as the app will warn people if they have come into contact with an infected person.

These apps require the participation of the government, civilians and businesses and use various types of personal data to track people. Europe is looking to replicate these types of apps, but certain laws will make it far more difficult to implement.

The success of contact tracing in Asian democracies

Most of the countries and regions that have effectively combatted COVID-19 lie in Asia, and nearly all have implemented a form of contact tracing based on personal…