A tiny trace of Big Brother?
Governments and tech corporations are racing to implement contact tracing — but privacy may be compromised
Could the rise of Covid-19 make humans waive their online privacy concerns? You know, for the greater good? Maybe.And that’s exactly what Google, Apple — and the SA government — are counting on.In an unprecedented move, Google and Apple have announced a partnership to provide contact-tracing solutions for Android and iOS operating systems. The feature will be designed to help track people who are confirmed to have been infected with Covid-19.But the SA government has its own contact-tracing plan.Communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams said in March that the government wanted to use aggregated location data to map trends in the spread of the virus. She said mobile operators MTN, Vodacom and Telkom had agreed to make this data available to track the number of people affected in specific areas.Information gathered by the government for its contact-tracing database includes ". .. the first name and surname, identity or passport numbers, residential address and other address wher...
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