Tech

The complex dangers of surveillance states


Chin: Yeah, that same year, the police used that technology to track suspects, and they basically said openly, “Well, we’ve changed our mind.”

Lin: And there’s a public outcry to that. And now they have stopped doing it. That’s just one example of how easily one use can lead to another.

The outcry led Singapore’s Parliament to pass a bill in February 2021 to restrict police use of TraceTogether data. State forces can still access the data, but they need to go through a stricter process to get permission.

It is easy to imagine that not all countries will react in the same way. Several Asian countries have taken the lead in adopting encrypted tracking apps, and it remains unclear how the relevant authorities will handle the data they collect. So it was a nice surprise when I read that Thailand, the country that promoted its own covid app, named MorChana, announced in June that it will close the application and delete all relevant data.

Since our conversation, I’ve always thought about what the pandemic means for surveillance technology. For one thing, I think it helps to illustrate that surveillance is not an abstract “evil” that all “good” societies would naturally oppose. Rather, there is a nuanced balance between privacy and social needs such as public health. And it is for this reason that we should expect to see governments of the world, including democracies, continue to cite new reasons to justify the use of surveillance technology. There will always be some kind of crisis to respond to, right?

Chin and Lin argue that instead of relying on governments taking responsibility for data and correcting themselves when it goes wrong, it is important to start recognizing the harms of surveillance technology early and put in place actions to take. regulations protect against such dangers.

How do you think countries should approach surveillance technology? Let me know what you think at zeyi@technologyreview.com

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