- Tech tools like digital contact tracing apps and artificial intelligence that European governments rolled out to combat COVID-19 failed to play a key role in solving the pandemic and now threaten to make such monitoring widely accepted, a new report shows.
- Some used drones and devices to enforce social distancing rules.
- The Dutch government’s CoronaCheck vaccination status app was plagued with glitches.
The recent analysis demonstrates that technological techniques such as digital contact tracing apps and artificial intelligence that European governments deployed to battle COVID-19 failed to play a vital role in resolving the pandemic and now threaten to make such surveillance generally acceptable as reported by AP News.
Health surveillance
The health surveillance technologies that many European countries deployed after the coronavirus pandemic erupted last year were often adopted without enough transparency, safeguards or democratic debate, according to a report released Thursday by AlgorithmWatch, a nonprofit research group that tracks the impact of AI systems.
Authorities scrambled to develop new technologies or use existing ones to combat the virus’s spread.
They built digital contact tracing apps to track who infected people had been around and later developed vaccine passports to verify people had received COVID-19 shots in order to travel or get into concerts, restaurants and other businesses.
Some used drones and devices to enforce social distancing rules.
Decision-making technology
Many of these systems used “automated decision-making” technology, which reduced the complex social challenges posed by COVID-19 to a set of technology issues in need of tech solutions, the Berlin-based nonprofit said.
AlgorithmWatch acknowledged that technology played a role in helping save some lives during the pandemic, such as through the use of artificial intelligence to efficiently distribute vaccines.
That’s an even larger problem considering the “bugs, fakery, data leaks” the group says are present in such tools, and the growing number of uses for information from COVID-fighting tech around the world.
Among the group’s recommendations: use an “evidence-based” approach when rolling out automated decision-making technology and clearly limit its use to avoid “mass opaque deployments” that are bad for democracy.
The report documented the false starts and pitfalls that came with rushing out new and untested technology, focusing mainly on European countries.
That brought an expanded risk of a “surveillance society,” the report said.
Tracing app
Most are based on technology jointly developed by Apple and Google and use Bluetooth signals to anonymously log any smartphones that have been in close, extended contact with a phone belonging to someone who has tested positive.
For example, there’s evidence the Cyprus government’s tracing app “was not widely adopted,” the report said.
The Dutch government’s CoronaCheck vaccination status app was plagued with glitches.
Because of the decentralized and privacy-sensitive design, its QR code couldn’t be revoked if a user-tested positive, allowing continued access to places that required proof of vaccination or a negative test result.
The Dutch health ministry did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
An Estonian chatbot used on a number of public websites gave incorrect information about COVID-19.
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Source: AP News
