Regina Surber‘s essay: “Corona Pan(dem)ic: Gateway to Global Surveillance”, has now been published by Springer.
“The essay reviews the digital emergency measures many governments have adopted in an attempt to curb Covid-19. It argues that those ‘virologically legitimized’ measures may infringe the human right to privacy and mark the transition into a world of global surveillance. At this possible turning point in human history, panic and latent fear seem to fog much needed farsightedness. Leaving the current state of emotional paralysis and restarting to critically assess the digital pandemic management can serve as an emergency break against drifting into a new era of digital monitoring.
It is said that the ‘corona crisis’ may be the biggest crisis of the current generation. As of 28 September 2020, 32.7 million persons are said to have been tested positive on Sars-CoV-2 in more than 200 countries and territories, and 991.000 people are said to have died from Covid-19 (WHO 2020a). On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization’s Director General declared Covid-19 as a pandemic (WHO 2020b). By the end of January and early February 2020, a wave of panic of the previously unknown physical Covid-19 illness has spread across the planet.”
The Springer publication is partly building on a first publication with the same title by ICT4Peace on 4 April 2020,
See other ICT4Peace activities and publications related to the risk and opportunities of ICTs and Social Media in a pandemic world.