accessed wirelessly. Many people have been asking me how the tech giants get a person’s COVID status. Some are even writing it off and saying they will refuse to enter their status in their phone. But what most are not realizing is at the same time officials are discussing using immunity certificates. Immunity certificates and other health status certifications are already being used in Asia. Citizens show their status on their phone to get access into everyday life. Their status is often determined by who they have had access to, by way of location data on their phone, and/or if they have already been infected or not. This is all fair game in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus. However, with no federal privacy law in place in the United States it can get terrifying, pretty quickly, and especially for Black communities.”
“I’m outlining the impact to the Black community in bullets in an effort to be as clear as possible so that you will understand the severity of this:”
– With Black communities being affected more, more Black people will be tracked. This means you, your friends, and/or your family.
– Left unregulated tracking can easily violate civil liberties that you have right now like:
Your freedom to come and go. Immunity certificates and other health status certificates will be akin to “Freedom Papers” that free slaves used to certify their status as free men in daily life.
Naturally, vaccinations will likely go out to those affected first and the most. This new digital contact tracing can, and likely will be, used to identify these people.
Because of higher infection and morbidity the Black community vaccines will likely go here first.
Vaccines are being fast-tracked and not going through the typical trial processes.
Vaccines that have not been thoroughly tested may be deployed to communities most affected first, Black communities. Any side effects will be felt by those communities first similar to vaccination testing during the Tuskegee Experiment.
Though Google and Apple are touting contact tracing as opt-in and voluntarily, during times of crisis what is often presented to us as optional is actually mandatory. For instance, the use of an app to get access to things you may need. With the support of the government behind them this is a very real possibility.
So what can we do?
Benton shares that we can begin to fight this by signing a petition that will be accompanied by a letter to members of congress demanding that laws surrounding this new way of contact tracing and data sharing adhere to just privacy laws.