Re: <nettime> Should use mobile phone data to monitor public health

[Lars Lehtonen <lars@larslehtonen.com>]

On Wed, Mar 18, 2020 at 10:20:02AM +0100, Felix Stalder wrote:
 
> A1, the largest mobile phone carrier, is providing data to public
> authorities in an effort to monitor these restrictions (contact
> tracing might come later). This is quite unprecedented and most
> people who care about data privacy are rather uneasy about it, for
> very obvious reasons.

The ease with which this firehose of data is "now" being shared with
government is telling. They've likely always done this.

American television is full of stories of psychics and forensic
minutae used to solve crimes. These story lines, to my thinking,
exist to prime public opinion and juries for outlandish tales from
law enforcement of how they were legally capable of solving difficult
crimes.

In reality, it's parallel construction to cover up for extralegal
means of investigation.

To the extent that this kind of surveillance is unprecedented, I'd
argue that the change is that they're admitting it.

In a public health crisis of this magnitude, using (or finally
acknowledging) these methods is sensical.

---
Lars Lehtonen




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