COVID-19 tracing? There’s an app for that. Privacy protection? There should be a law
The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) may soon adopt smartphone technology to be used as a tracing tool for COVID-19. Think of it as gumshoe detective work, digital style.
A phone app using bluetooth technology tracks users’ movement and alerts them if they’ve come in contact with someone who’s tested positive for coronavirus.
This new digital tracing tool could be a key to getting back to business, but it comes at a cost: our privacy. That should raise a red flag for Washingtonians, whose state constitution has one of the nation’s strongest provisions protecting the right to privacy.
Multiple tech companies have already created coronavirus-tracking apps that enable health departments to detect outbreaks.
As Gov. Jay Inslee said during a recent press conference, contact tracing will “allow us to get a better handle on who gets sick and how the virus is spread, which is vital to re-opening our economy.”
A tracing system lets people know if they’ve been exposed, so they can isolate quickly. But what about the privacy concerns?
Enter Washington state U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell who’s been fighting an uphill battle on digital privacy legislation for years.
Last year Cantwell took the lead on the Consumer Rights Privacy Rights Act, but the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee couldn’t convince a majority of her colleagues that Americans have a right to view the personal information that tech giants like Facebook and Google have amassed on them.
Let’s hope Cantwell has better luck with the Exposure Notification Privacy Act, the first piece of national legislation that would put restrictions on apps that help with infectious-disease tracing.
If the bill passes in the next relief package, it would stop tech companies from mining our health data for commercial use and require all contact-tracing app makers to work in collaboration with public health authorities.
Businesses would also be prohibited from forcing employees to download infection-tracking software.
The proposal, co-sponsored by Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana doctor, has bipartisan backing. Washington state DOH chief John Wiesman also supports it.
A few states have already dipped into these unchartered waters, but we agree with Cantwell who said: “If these apps don’t have a strong privacy framework, it will undermine consumer confidence.”
And right now, consumer confidence is low when it comes to big tech.
True, most of us have become increasingly desensitized to privacy invasions. Millions of Americans don’t hesitate to post intimate details of their lives, personal interests and shopping habits on social media.
But few people who know what lies beneath the surface are comfortable with it: hidden trackers in iphones and androids monitoring every movement and search; credit card companies that keep and sell data on every purchase; thousands of “cookies” embedded in computer browsers that report to big tech our every post, tweet, or chat; and high-tech cars with sensors that record how we drive and where we go.
Washingtonians are witnessing in real time the mayhem that results when trolls and malevolent actors get their hands on private data the government failed to protect. (See also: the state’s current unemployment scandal wherein billions of dollars disappeared.)
When North Dakota launched its contact-tracing app called “Care-19” in April, a consumer privacy group discovered information was sent to third parties including Google and the data intelligence company Foursquare.
That’s exactly what shouldn’t happen here. If Washington’s health department wants to track our location through bluetooth technology, there must be transparency concerning proper engagement, legality and disposal of data.
Department spokesperson Amy Reynolds told us that DOH is in the process of drafting a charter on tracking apps and finalizing an oversight committee that “will include members of the state Legislature, a representative from the Attorney’s General Office and many others.”
Reynolds says DOH has its eye on an app created by the University of Washington in partnership with Microsoft. Surveillance would be voluntary and allow local health departments to ping people who were in close proximity to someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
“It would only be a tool,” she said, “and would not replace traditional contact tracing.”
Certainly protecting public safety is important, and modern technology is useful to that mission. A few days ago we urged Tacoma to implement police body cameras. But that should proceed with strict privacy safeguards, too.
We say before governments roll out disease exposure-notification apps, guardrails are needed on any large-scale surveillance system. The abuse potential is bigger than most folks can imagine.
If we’re going to trade privacy for public health, we need protections backed by federal law.