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We’ve “begun analyzing the data of who we have arrested, and begun, actually, doing what you would think as almost pretty similar to our COVID. It’s contact tracing. Who are they associated with? What platforms are they advocating for?” he said.
The Department of Public Safety works in partnership with local state and federal law enforcement and emergency response agencies.
Public health and privacy experts reacted with alarm, saying that conflating law enforcement and contact tracing could hamper COVID-19 tracing efforts by sowing distrust of the process as protests continue across the U.S.
“You need people to engage with contact tracing to save lives during an epidemic,” said Nigel Smart, a Swiss professor who has been a key figure in pushing Europe towards decentralized contact tracing protocols. He said that from a public policy point of view, the statement was both worrisome and short sighted.
“Making people think that contact tracing could also be used for political or law enforcement may make people less likely to engage with contact tracing during an epidemic. Which will then lead to unnecessary loss of life.”
This sentiment was echoed by Caitlin Rivers, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, which is closely tracking the spread of COVID-19 across the U.S.
“This is not contact tracing! What is described in the video is police work,” said Rivers in a tweet. “To see the two linked jeopardizes the credibility of public health, which needs community trust to work effectively.”
Protests over police brutality and the death of George Floyd have raged for days in Minneapolis and across the U.S. George Floyd was an African-American man who was killed by police when an officer kneeled on his neck and choked him for more than eight minutes. The incident was caught on video.
The real danger is that COVID tracing apps in the name of public health will be weaponized against dissidents, which is why we must support decentralized alternatives.
The concerns over undermining contact tracing efforts are exacerbated when black people are twice as likely to die from COVID-19 in America.
Contact tracing is the process of ascertaining whom people infected with COVID-19 might have come into contact with during the period in which they were contagious.
Governments, health experts and privacy advocates have been debating for weeks how invasive privacy-speaking contact tracing tech would need to be.
Adam Schwartz, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), was alarmed by law enforcement’s suggestion that surveillance of protesters, and their beliefs and associations, is similar to contact tracing.
“Public health officials undertaking contact tracing must never share the personal information they collect with police, immigration enforcement agencies, or intelligence officials,” said Schwartz.
“In fact, we need new legislation to guarantee this. Likewise, contact tracing should gather the least possible information, retain it for the shortest possible period of time, and use it for nothing except contact tracing.”
Harry Halpin, a technologist and CEO of Nym, a privacy-tech startup, said the technique of contact tracing is the same whether it’s detecting coronavirus spread or targetting political protesters in the U.S. supporting Black Lives Matter. But that underscores the need for systems that by design don’t allow information related to COVID-19 to be shared with law enforcement.
“The real danger is that COVID tracing apps in the name of public health will be weaponized against dissidents, which is why we must support decentralized alternatives,” said Halpin. “Overall, if possible always leave your phone at home, even at protests!”
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Iran flag (Credit: Shutterstock)
Iranian Lawmaker Says Bitcoin Should Be Central Bank’s Turf
Representative Mohammad Hossein Farhangi (Tabriz), speaking Tuesday before the nation’s parliament, called on the Governor of the Central Bank of Iran, Abdolnaser Hemmati, to handle oversight of bitcoin, according to the Tasnim news agency.
Calling proper management of bitcoin a “good opportunity for the country,” Farhangi warned against ceding its potential to financial institutions. “Take the issue of bitcoin seriously,” he said.
Iran has been taking crypto seriously on some fronts. Parliament moved to enact restrictive currency smuggling laws in late May. Around that time, President Hassan Rouhani ordered his government to begin devising a national crypto mining strategy and accompanying regulatory regime. The Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade also licensed Iran’s largest bitcoin mining operation in May.
But Farhangi, who sits on the Industries and Mines committee, thinks that Iran’s mining hyperfocus leaves much to be desired in its treatment of cryptocurrencies.
“We do not understand that the government has entrusted the monitoring of bitcoins to the Ministry of Industry and Mines,” he said, “because the central bank must oversee digital currencies.”
Iran has been tiptoeing towards broader cryptocurrency adoption despite signals that the Central Bank might try to ban payment via bitcoin. Some in the financially ostracized country also reportedly see cryptocurrency as a means to evade sanctions.
Editor’s note: Statements in this article have been translated from Farsi.