The COVID-19 pandemic was exploited as an excuse to normalize surveillance and monitor peoples’ daily activities around the world under the guise of public health, said AlgorithmWatch, a non-profit that tracks automated decision-making (ADM) systems and their impacts on society.
Based on the findings of a yearlong monitoring of the implementation of the ADM systems, In the “Tracing the Tracers” project, the Germany-based group concluded that the situation regarding ADM systems is even worse than before the COVID-19 pandemic began because they now include potentially life-saving tools.
Since the emergence of the coronavirus crisis, many automated decision-making (ADM) systems were adopted in haste and with almost no transparency, no adequate safeguards, and insufficient democratic debate, said AlgorithmWatch.
Some examples of ADM systems include digital contact tracing (DCT) apps and digital COVID certificates (DCC).
The watchdog said the adoption of these tools happened fast and without any consideration of potential risks and downfalls.
“The pandemic must not be treated as an excuse to normalize vague and undefined exceptions to principles of EU law and internnational human rights law,” AlgorithmWatch said in a report of its findings.
The watchdog cites thermoscanners and surveillance cameras with the assistance of drones and robots which helped ensure that people were social distancing and abiding by quarantine rules and regulations.
The group, which focused its study more on European countries, said the problem is not using technology to solve a health crisis, but instead is about how the pandemic strongly influenced how technology is applied, with much of the push coming from public health policymaking and public perceptions.
“What’s even more worrisome is how little this has been debated in democratic countries,” said Fabio Chiusi, project lead for the tracing the tracers project.
The legitimacy of invading people’s privacy to control the crisis, inflamed a growing debate around the world, as people are divided between those who fervently defend the schemes and others who intensely oppose them. Fear and misinformation have influenced both sides, said the report.
The pandemic is a complex public health issue that cannot be treated as something that can be solved by technological advances, the report added, stressing that governments and leaders must do everything they can to ensure that mass health surveillance does not become the new normal.
The study said ADM-based responses did help tackle COVID-19, but questions still remain over whether DCT apps, DCC schemes, AI and other algorithms helped nations respond effectively, the report added.
Despite relying on ADM technology to tackle the global pandemic, the European Union failed to properly govern important developments throughout the pandemic, said the study.
The report further warned against an AI arms race between the United States and China, stressing that an evidence-based approach to ADM systems can help avoid international tensions and conflict.
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