PerspectiveHow to Think about the Right to Privacy and Using Location Data to Fight COVID-19

Published 31 March 2020

If asked to give up their privacy in the interests of stemming the coronavirus, many Americans may be inclined to say yes. Jay Stanley writes, however, that the answer requires more nuance, both because there are serious tradeoffs to be made, and because sacrificing privacy may actually backfire.

If asked to give up their privacy in the interests of stemming the coronavirus, many Americans may be inclined to say yes. But the answer requires more nuance, both because there are serious tradeoffs to be made, and because sacrificing privacy may actually backfire.

Jay Stanley writes in Just Security that

Consider, for example, serious discussions reportedly underway between the tech industry and the White House over how our cellphone location data might be used to help in the fight against COVID-19.  Having defended privacy for 100 years, we at the American Civil Liberties Union recognize that in extraordinary times, different balances may be warranted. The virus poses grave risks, so we should not write off tools that might help mitigate the problem. But we should be skeptical about calls to embrace Chinese-style tracking as a helpful measure in the current emergency. And any uses need to incorporate privacy protections if they are not going to be counterproductive.

Some have suggested, for example, that companies might share anonymized, aggregate data to help epidemiologists answer questions such as how many people are moving between adjacent neighborhoods, towns, or states each day. Anonymization alone does not solve all privacy problems; such data can often be re-identified, for example, by tracing a person’s movements to their home and workplace. On the other hand, given the urgency of our situation, analysis of aggregate data by companies might prove valuable if it comes with strict safeguards.

He adds:

We are facing a terrible crisis, and Americans are rightly frightened. Times of emergency require a different weighing of privacy considerations. We need to seriously consider how technology can help us—but we also need to make sure that, when we’ve made it past this crisis, our country isn’t transformed into a place we don’t want to live.