World risks permanent surveillance with coronavirus controls
(Worthy News) – More than 100 civil society groups urged governments Thursday not to use the global coronavirus pandemic as cover for future pervasive electronic snooping but instead make sure data is erased once the health crisis is over.
Hasty initiatives to access mobile phones to trace population interactions and especially infected persons “threatens privacy, freedom of expression and freedom of association,” warned Privacy International and Human Rights Watch (HRW).
“Dictatorships and authoritarian societies often start in the face of a threat,” UN Special Rapporteur Joseph Cannataci said. “That is why it is important to be vigilant today and not give away all our freedoms.”
“We must not sleepwalk into a permanent expanded surveillance state now,” cautioned Rasha Abdul Rahim, deputy director of Amnesty International’s tech division. [ Source: Deutche Welle (Read More…) ]