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Content type: Examples
The Thai Tech Startup Association, Department of Disease Control (Ministry of Public Health), Digital Economy Promotion Agency (Ministry of Digital Economy and Society), and National Innovation Agency have developed a questionnaire on an app which as adverised on the Thai Tech Startup Associaiton the questionnaire is designed for people to self-assess if they are in high risk or not. Developed by the Department of Diseases the questionnaire asks a variety of questions related to symptoms…
Content type: Examples
The Belgian Minister of Public Health has approved a programme under which telephone companies Proximus and Telenet will transfer some of their their data to the private third-party company Dalberg Data Insights in order to help combat the coronavirus epidemic; Orange has also agreed "in principle". The details are still to be agreed pending a legal and technical analysis of the proposed project. So far it has been reported that location data and real-time tracking would be used to assess the…
Content type: Examples
Researchers at the University of Oxford are working with the UK government on an app similar to the smartphone tracking system China developed to alert people who have come in contact with someone infected with the coronavirus. The British app, which would be associated with the country's National Health Service,, would rely on the public volunteering to share their location data out of a sense of civic duty rather than, as in China, compulsion. The service would not publish the movements of…
Content type: Examples
Among the emergency measures announced by Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic, the military will guard hospitals and police will monitor those in quarantine or self-isolation for 14 or 28 days, who could face jail terms of up to three years for violating the rules.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-serbia/serbia-calls-state-of-emergency-to-counter-coronavirus-idUSKBN21215E
Writer: Reuters
Publication: Reuters
Content type: Examples
Russia has set up a coronavirus information centre to to monitor social media for misinformation about the coronavirus and spot empty supermarket shelves using a combination of surveillance cameras and AI. The centre also has a database of contacts and places of work for 95% of those under mandatory quarantine after returning from countries where the virus is active. Sherbank, Russia's biggest bank, has agreed to pay for a free app that will provide free telemedicine consultations.
Source:…
Content type: Examples
Four members of the Council of Europe - Romania, Latvia, Moldova, and Armenia - have activated Article 15 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which allows derogations in cases of public emergency. Derogation allows Member States to take measures to the extent required by the situation as long as those do not contravene other obligations such as the articles that prohibit torture and slavery and protect the right to life.
Source: https://www.g4media.ro/romania-moldova-letonia-si-…
Content type: Examples
Four members of the Council of Europe - Romania, Latvia, Moldova, and Armenia - have activated Article 15 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which allows derogations in cases of public emergency. Derogation allows Member States to take measures to the extent required by the situation as long as those do not contravene other obligations such as the articles that prohibit torture and slavery and protect the right to life.
Source: https://www.g4media.ro/romania-moldova-letonia-si-…
Content type: Examples
Four members of the Council of Europe - Romania, Latvia, Moldova, and Armenia - have activated Article 15 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which allows derogations in cases of public emergency. Derogation allows Member States to take measures to the extent required by the situation as long as those do not contravene other obligations such as the articles that prohibit torture and slavery and protect the right to life.
Source: https://www.g4media.ro/romania-moldova-letonia-si-…
Content type: Examples
Four members of the Council of Europe - Romania, Latvia, Moldova, and Armenia - have activated Article 15 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which allows derogations in cases of public emergency. Derogation allows Member States to take measures to the extent required by the situation as long as those do not contravene other obligations such as the articles that prohibit torture and slavery and protect the right to life.
Source: https://www.g4media.ro/romania-moldova-letonia-si-…
Content type: Examples
In emergency legislation, the government of Norway proposed to exempt itself from current laws other than the Constitution and human rights so that it could issue new rules and regulations without needing Parliamentary debate even if they conflict with other laws. MPs may intervene if a third of them oppose the rules. The bill includes a sunset clause so it will expire automatically on December 31, 2020.
Writer: The Local
Source: https://www.thelocal.no/20200318/norway-to-rush-through-…
Content type: Examples
The identities of Montenegro's first two confirmed COVID-19 patients were published by social media users, including photos of one of the patients and her family, leading to online abuse based on their ethnicity and religious beliefs.
Source: https://balkaninsight.com/2020/03/18/montenegrin-coronavirus-patients-identities-exposed-online/
Writer: Samir Kajosevic
Publication: BalkanInsight
Content type: Examples
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has authorised the country's internal security agency to use a previously secret tranche of mobile phone geolocation data, gathered to combat terrorism, to retrace the movements of individuals with confirmed cases of the coronavirus and identify people they've interacted with who should be quarantined. After Parliament's Secret Services Subcommittee ended its discussions without approving the measure, Netanyahu said the government would approve…
Content type: Examples
Hong Kong is issuing electronic tracker wristbands to people under compulsory home quarantine to ensure they do not go out. The wristbands are accompanied by a mandatory smartphone app that shares their location with the government via messaging platforms such as WeChat and WhatsApp. Upon arriving at the place where they are quarantined, users walk around the corners so the technology can track the space in which they are confined.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/18/hong-kong-uses-…
Content type: Examples
The Ecuadorian government has authorised tracking mobile phones via GPS satellite to ensure that citizens do not break mandatory quarantine after six violators were identified.
Source: https://www.ecuadortv.ec/noticias/covid-19/romo-vigilancia-epidemiologico-covid19-?
Writer: Ecuador TV
Publication: Ecuador TV
Content type: Examples
The Chinese Communist Party has worked to control the narrative and deflect blame during the coronavirus crisis by drawing on its state and CCP-owned media to disseminate content via its English-language Facebook pages and Twitter feed (even though these platforms are banned in China). China has emphasised rapid recovery and successful treatments, as well as positive stories about efforts such as building makeshift hospitals at speed. Later stories also seek to position China as a world leader…
Content type: Examples
Among the Chinese companies making efforts to help the country respond to the coronavirus are the technology giants Alibaba, Baidu, ByteDance, Tencent, Xiaomi, and Foxconn. In order to fight misinformation, Baidu created a map layer on top of its standard Map App that shows real-time locations of confirmed and suspected cases of the virus so that people can avoid hot spots. Qihoo 360 has launched a platform travellers can use to check if anyone on their recent train or plane trips has since…
Content type: Examples
The Polish government has developed the free Home Quarantine app for both iPhone and Android, which allows the police to check that individuals do not break quarantine; those who do may be fined up to PLN 5,000 and also offers support to those who are quarantined. Once users activate the app by entering a phone number and a code sent via SMS, they send a reference photo. Every so often the app sends an unscheduled request for a new photo to be sent within 20 minutes. The system checks both the…
Content type: Examples
Metrolinx, the public transport agency for the Canadian province of Ontario says that, on request, it gave Toronto Public Health contact information associated with registered Presto payment cards used on specific trips, after a 40-year-old man was diagnosed with coronavirus (COVID-19). The agency revealed the news on Twitter and said that compelling circumstances affecting the health and safety of individuals under the Ontario privacy act (FIPPA) permits the disclosure of personal…
Content type: Examples
The Serb-dominated Republika Srpska, one of two entities that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina, is introducing fines of €500 to €1,500 (individuals) or €3,000 to €9,000 for spreading "panic and disorder" by publishing false news about the coronavirus outbreak in the media and on social networks.
Source: https://balkaninsight.com/2020/03/19/bosnias-republika-srpska-imposes-fines-for-coronavirus-fake-news/
Writer: Danijel Kovacevic
Publication: BalkanInsight
Content type: Examples
India has begun stamping the hands of people arriving at airports in the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka to specify the date until which they must remain in quarantine. The government is also using airline and railway reservation data to track suspected infections and find hand-stamped people who had promised not to travel. Kerala authorities have used telephone call records, CCTV footage, and mobile phone GPS systems to trace contracts of COVID-19 patients, and published detailed time and…
Content type: Examples
Technology entrepreneurs within Belgium would like to introduce a health code app similar to China's Alipay Health Code that would control individuals' movements based on their health status. The government has engaged privacy experts from the Belgian data protection authority and Ghent University to consider the possibility, despite the country's strict privacy laws, which have no equivalent in China..
Source: https://www.apache.be/gastbijdragen/2020/03/18/hoe-het-…
Content type: Examples
A phone-tracking system used by SAPOL for criminal investigations was used to better understand where a coronavirus-infected 60-year-old couple, who had travelled from Wuhan to visit relatives, roamed in Adelaide in order to identify people who might have been exposed, according to the South Australian police commissioner. Police used a program that only requires a phone number to initiate a download of where the phone has been used; to use it they must meet a legislative threshold…
Content type: Examples
Hakob Arshakyan, Armenia's minister of the high technology industry, has convened a research group comprising experts in IT and AI has been convened to collect and analyse data on the spread of coronavirus, compare it with the data collected by international partners, and develop forecasts. The minister believes that the research group's work will help provide accurate and reliable information that will help coordinate and manage containment efforts. As of March 19, Armenia had confirmed 122…
Content type: Examples
UK: O2 shares aggregated location data with government to test compliance with distancing guidelines
Mobile network operator O2 is providing aggregated data to the UK government to analyse anonymous smartphone location data in order to show people are following the country's social distancing guidelines, particularly in London, which to date accounts for about 40% of the UK's confirmed cases and 30% of deaths. The project is not designed to monitor individuals. Lessons from the impact on London of travel restrictions could then be applied in the rest of the country. The government says it has…
Content type: Examples
BT, owner of UK mobile operator EE, is in talks with the government about using its phone location and usage data to monitor whether coronavirus limitation measures such as asking the public to stay at home are working. The information EE supplies would be delayed by 12 to 24 hours, and would provide the ability to create movement maps that show patterns. The data could also feed into health services' decisions, and make it possible to send health alerts to the public in specific locations.…
Content type: Examples
As governments look into surveillance, geolocation and biometric facial recognition to contain the coronavirus, even if they violate user data privacy, the controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI is allegedly negotiating a partnership with state agencies to monitor infected people and the individuals with whom they have interacted. The data mining company Palantir is already collaborating with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health, while…
Content type: Examples
As governments look into surveillance, geolocation and biometric facial recognition to contain the coronavirus, even if they violate user data privacy, the controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI is allegedly negotiating a partnership with state agencies to monitor infected people and the individuals with whom they have interacted. The data mining company Palantir is already collaborating with the CDC and NIH, while the White House convened a task force of technology companies to…
Content type: Examples
China: Manufacturer Telepower adds fever detection and facial recognition to point-of-sale terminals
According to a company announcement, Telepower Communication (Telpo), a leading Chinese manufacturer of smart point-of-sale systems and intelligent hardware, has integrated into its terminals new features to support a wide variety of contactless use cases. The company’s family of terminals for catering, retail, payment, security, and other applications, include biometric, fever-detecting facial recognition, and ticket validation technology. The technology supports accurate identification of up…
Content type: News & Analysis
In the last few days, PI and its Network have been recording and documenting the measures being proposed by various governments, international institutions and companies to help contain the spread of Covid-19.
In a recent development, the Guardian have reported that the UK government is the latest to seek to use mobile phone location and other traffic data from telecommunication operators to help with measures the government may develop next as part of the response to Covid-19.
It comes…
Content type: Key Resources
Tech companies, governments, and international agencies have all announced measures to help contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Some of these measures impose severe restrictions on people’s freedoms, including to their privacy and other human rights. Unprecedented levels of surveillance, data exploitation, and misinformation are being tested across the world.
Many of those measures are based on extraordinary powers, only to be used temporarily in emergencies. Others use exemptions in…