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We Don’t Need Big Brother to Beat This Virus
Is there a way to reopen the economy that doesn’t involve draconian surveillance measures?
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 8:32 a.m. Published Apr 23, 2020, 7:00 p.m.
Is there a way to reopen the economy post-virus that doesn’t involve draconian surveillance measures?
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One of the key aspects of most plans to survive the virus and reopen the economy is digital contact tracing. This would be an apparatus whereby mobile phones kept track of the other mobile phones they had been physically proximate to, so that if someone were diagnosed with COVID-19 the at-risk people they had been in contact with could be notified. Apple and Google have proposed one plan while a European consortium is working on another.
At the center of the issue is whether contact tracing can be done in a way that doesn’t violate privacy and doesn’t open a Pandora’s box of new issues around the data governments have on their citizens.
Today’s episode of The Breakdown explores the crypto community’s response to contact tracing and why we don’t need big brother to beat the virus.
See also: Quantitative Tightening and 5 Key Questions for Our Changing World
For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocketcasts, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Stitcher, RadioPublica, IHeartRadio or RSS.
Note: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinDesk, Inc. or its owners and affiliates.
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