Could COVID19 surveillance be the wave of the future?
Technology
Recently, White House coronavirus task force member and infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci told the world that the deadly global disease is here to stay. So, until there’s a vaccine (or IF there’s ever a vaccine), how will the world come out from under their bedsheets and eventually get back to some sense of normalcy? According to the experts, COVID19 surveillance just might be the privacy-killing but very necessary solution to the problem.
Don’t look now, but tech developers are actively creating tools capable of monitoring scores of people via COVID19 surveillance checks whenever they shop, work, travel, dine, or otherwise go out into public. So, instead of needing to test every single passenger boarding a plane or every single patron attending an NBA game, technology would handle the task automatically.
Here’s how it would work: COVID19 surveillance systems would be installed at travel centers, sports and entertainment venues, public transportation platforms, and other places where crowds congregate. Within the blink of an eye, the technology would be able to conduct a thermal temperature scan of dozens of people all at once then select and remove from the crowd anyone displaying coronavirus symptoms, such as a high fever. That person could then be denied boarding on a plane or train, or denied admission into a Broadway show, musical concert, or theme park.
Interestingly, the technology to conduct COVID19 surveillance is not new. Casinos have been using facial recognition technology for years in order to assure safety and to catch cheating gamblers. So, making the change from facial surveillance to health surveillance is not as difficult as some might think.
Vantiq is one such software firm which has been repurposing its company to focus on technology tied to tracing COVID19. Since March, the company has built tools to enable the tracking of the virus through facial recognition and thermal cameras being used by private companies. Those tools could very easily be expanded to include the general public at large.
Privacy advocates are understandably against the development of COVID19 surveillance technology since it would force Americans to involuntarily provide details about their health to officials while going about their daily lives. For example, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden believes such technology would become permanent even after the threat of the coronavirus subsides, which would allow Uncle Sam to track all of us for perpetuity. However, government officials argue that the technology may soon become a necessary tool to reopen the country and to make everyone feel confident and safe when venturing into a crowd.
Our privacy is already dead so why should this matter. Some of this is going to get done weather we want it or not. We might as well accept it now. I can see the thermal thing maybe being helpful but that’s about it.