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Coronavirus: Is mass surveillance here to stay?

Governments are deploying new technologies to fight coronavirus. But at what cost to privacy?

Governments everywhere are increasing mass surveillance as part of efforts to combat the spread of the coronavirus. Whether it鈥檚 a smartphone app that traces who you鈥檝e been in contact with, public sensors that can tell if you鈥檙e running a temperature, or cameras equipped with facial recognition technology capable of instantaneously identifying you while walking down the street. In China, drones are being deployed to help police public spaces, while colour codes are used to determine who鈥檚 allowed out in public. So, is a loss of personal privacy that accompanies such measures a reasonable price to pay for recovery? A report from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change concludes that it is. But critics are calling for a better debate before our societies become transformed. Ritula Shah and a panel of expert guests discuss whether we are entering an era where constant surveillance becomes the new normal. Are we giving up our privacy too readily? Or is this the only way to defeat a virus that's destroying lives and economies?

Available now

53 minutes

Last on

Sat 2 May 2020 03:06GMT

Contributors


Shoshana Zuboff - Author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Stephen Roberts - Fellow in global health policy at the London School of Economics聽
Yuan Yang - Beijing technology correspondent for the Financial Times

Photo

A man holds a smartphone showing a tracking and tracing app in Oslo, Norway by Heiko Junge/NTB Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)

Broadcasts

  • Fri 1 May 2020 09:06GMT
  • Fri 1 May 2020 23:06GMT
  • Sat 2 May 2020 03:06GMT

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