From the first moment, when what was not yet a pandemic began, and COVID-19 was focused on China, Apple already started certain projects to mitigate its expansion. When it has already become a global problem and especially has begun to affect the US, Apple decided to collaborate as much as possible with the authorities. One of the ways has been to implement a symptom detection app and web page.
These resources right now, are undergoing an analysis by some US Senators who want to know the degree of privacy of the same.
US Senators ask Apple about the extent of the privacy of its coronavirus app and website.
Before we get into the news, I want us to think for a moment about whether we should put privacy aside for a moment at this time. in pursuit of the common good. Let me explain a bit. Among the huge amount of news from all over the world about how governments have managed the virus crisis, we find China and especially South Korea.
In these Asian countries, a series of applications have been implemented through which a person could receive advice on the symptoms of the virus and whether or not they could be infected. In both cases, people are given recommendations on how to act. However, if you think you might be or you were traveling from an affected area, the mobile geopositioned to that person. If it went out of limits, an alert sounded that also alerted the authorities. In this way, that person was prevented from infecting others.
The experiment seems to have gone well, for the data they offer, and they talk about it with some pride.
In Spain, for example, a similar alternative has been implemented by the Government, as in the different Autonomous Communities. In both cases, this geopositioning of the person is not reached, but it is necessary provide a series of personal data. What worries is the treatment of this data. Spanish analysts stated that, for example, the acceptance of cookies was a bit misleading and privacy could be exceeded. It was quickly corrected.
In the US, Apple, among others, has an application and a Web page more similar to the Spanish than to the South Korean. But still, 4 US Senators have asked the CEO of the company, Tim Cook, about the degree of privacy of both platforms. When collecting personal and health data from individuals.
We have two ways of acting (among others) in the face of COVID-19 through technology: South Korea and China versus Spain and the United States.
The way these governments act in the face of COVID-19 have been very different, but we are going to focus on technology. On the Web pages and applications that help the person to self-diagnose and track their health.
I have a question in this case. worth give up privacy to maintain health?
If we start from the premise that these applications have contributed to curbing the spread of COVID-19, we can say that it would be well worth giving up apart from our privacy in order to keep the famous curve at bay and not have many infected and dead.
But the next thing to ask or question, is What companies do with this data later. We have no guarantees that companies can use this data for other purposes, let's say not so positive. In this case we could not give up privacy, which I understand, is a fundamental right of each person. Companies must be at the service of the user, not the other way around.
Apple on this occasion stated that “it is not collecting your responses from the selection tool ”, while saying that it does collect some data on how the application is used, in general terms. "None of the information it collects can be used to identify an individual ", according to Apple.
Senators acknowledge that Apple says the software does not "require a login or association with a user's Apple ID, and individual user responses. They will not be sent to Apple or any government organization. "
It seems that everything is in order, Apple has always prided itself on its vision of privacy, but they still want Tim Cook to respond in a more detailed way to how it treats privacy in these cases.
Do you think the privacy should be accessory in these cases of crisis? Do you think that user privacy is essential and should it be maintained at all costs?
