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March 19, 2020 2 min read
In the wake of COVID-19 (Coronavirus), and the lockdowns that States, Countries, and Counties are putting into place, there are reports that Governments are using the current state of the world to overlook privacy laws to track their citizens.
They are using technologies that are originally designed for tracking terrorists and public travel around the world. While in many of these countries it is illegal, they are getting around it by using "anonymous" data. This data set will show not only where people are going, but certain areas where people are congregating and blatantly ignoring bans. Even if this data is "anonymous", this data can easily be reverse-engineered to find out exactly who each signal is.
So far, cellular companies in Italy, Austria, and Germany have reported handing over anonymous data to help the government analyze how effective their lockdowns and pleas are.
Elsewhere, the Israeli government has begun to monitor cellphones after issuing the public to stay inside on Tuesday, and China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and South Korea have begun to use data from applications to do the same. With the Australian government's talks of imposing fines on individuals that break the self-isolation rules, we would not be surprised if they are not far behind these other countries.
Will the United States be next to implement this? Or have they done so already?
Only time will tell, and we will be sure to keep you notified if we find anything out.
If you plan to leave the house for anything other than "essential needs," we recommend a Faraday Sleeve for your phone. It will prevent you from being added to that possible data set.