Since the COVID-19 crisis began, many universities have looked to novel technologies to assist their efforts to retain in-person operations. Most prominent are untested contact tracing and notification applications or devices. While universities must commit to public health, too often… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘COVID-19 and Digital Rights’
Why Open Access Is Necessary for Makers
This is an Open Access Week guest post by Jordan Bunker, prototype engineer and open access advocate. After the world went into lockdown for COVID-19, Makers were suddenly confined to their workshops. Rather than idly wait it out, many of… Read More ›
Open Access Must Be the Rule, Not the Exception
Not Just for COVID-19, But for the Next Crisis Too The COVID-19 pandemic demands that governments, scientific researchers, and industry work together to bring life-saving technology to the public regardless of who can afford it. But even as we take… Read More ›
Facebook’s Most Recent Transparency Report Demonstrates the Pitfalls of Automated Content Moderation
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, many social media platforms shifted their content moderation policies to rely much more heavily on automated tools. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube all ramped up their machine learning capabilities to review and identify flagged… Read More ›
Exposing Your Face Isn't a More Hygienic Way to Pay
A company called PopID has created an identity-management system that uses face recognition. Their first use case is as a system for in-store, point of sale payments using face recognition as authorization for payment. They are promoting it as a… Read More ›
Workplace Surveillance in Times of Corona
With numbers of COVID-19 infections soaring again in the United States and around the world, we have to learn how to manage its long-term ramifications for our economies. As people adjust to minimizing the risk of infections in everyday settings,… Read More ›
Exposure Notification Technology is Ready for Its Closeup
Since this COVID-19 crisis began people have looked to technology to assist in contact tracing and notification. Technology will never be a silver bullet to solve a deeply human crisis, even if it might assist. No app will work absent widespread… Read More ›
COVID-19 Tracking Technology Will Not Save Us
Technology may be part of the solution to stopping the spread of COVID-19, but apps alone will not save us. As more states develop COVID exposure notification apps, institutions and the people they serve should remain skeptical and remember the… Read More ›
California Must Recognize That Privacy is Vital to Public Health Efforts
Californians have a constitutional right to privacy. There is no more important time to protect that right to privacy than during a crisis, such as the current pandemic. That is why EFF, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of… Read More ›
No to Expanded HHS Surveillance of COVID-19 Patients
The federal government plans to process more of our personal data, in the name of containing COVID-19, but without showing that this serious privacy intrusion would actually do anything to protect public health. EFF filed comments in opposition to these… Read More ›