Contact tracing apps threaten democracy in Europe
Bianca Rahimi
Press TV, London
Healthcare systems across the globe have been brought to their knees by the Covid-19 pandemic. And as people mourn the death of over 250,000 people killed by the virus, new weapons are being deployed to fight it -- but what are these weapons? Some say they could be more dangerous than the virus itself.
According to information recently leaked here in Britain, not all the government’s advisors are leading scientists. Among them are data specialists and a member of a multi-billion dollar company working for a UK intelligence agency. This has stoked fears that surveillance companies have seized an opportunity presented by the pandemic.
“If only a few months ago we’d been asked to download an app that would report all our movements back to the government -- who we’d met up with, when and where and for how long – would we have done it? It sound like something out of George Orwell’s 1984. But that is exactly what the UK government will be asking us to do in the post Covid-19 era.”
The UK’s Health Secretary has announced that the piloting of a contact-tracing app has begun on the Isle of Wight.
Britons, tired of the lockdown and afraid of contracting the virus, are being encouraged to “do their bit” and participate so life can go back to normal. But is this just a very efficient short-term solution or will it have long-term implications?
London is one of the most surveilled cities in the world with half a million cameras watching us every day. Citizens and rights groups are fighting back but what are they up against? What’s happening in Israel could predict Europe’s future. Tel-Aviv has spent decades honing its ability to monitor the movements of every citizen and the Palestinians -- on the pretext of tracking down criminals and terrorists. Its technology is described as the most sophisticated population management system on the planet used to spy on four million people without their consent. So the question is will these new tracking tools be a gateway to expanded surveillance in Europe and beyond, and will BIG BROTHER be willing to discard his new tool once the pandemic passes?
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