Would you trade privacy for freedom?
Delta is currently the dominant variant of COVID-19 around the world and there are reports of new variants emerging that may be of interest. Australia, where I live, is looking to change their strategy from elimination of COVID-19 to vaccination.
Australian political leaders have agreed on a four-phased approach to reopen the country. The third phase — Vaccination Consolidation Phase will see Australia move closer to “normal life” by functioning under a few baseline restrictions.
Phase three involves:
- Exempt vaccinated residents from all domestic restrictions;
- Lift all restrictions on outbound travel for vaccinated Australians; and
- Extend travel bubble for unrestricted travel to new candidate countries
Proof of Vaccination
Currently, fully vaccinated Australians can access their COVID-19 digital certificate through MyGov web portal or app. State governments are in the process of building an experience for showing how a proof of vaccination could look like during QR-Code check-in.
Overseas travellers will have this directly linked to their passport along with a QR-code.
Here is where it starts to get interesting
The federal government have said that home quarantine will be key to reopening borders and there will be an app to monitor if people are staying home for the required amount.
How would this app work?
The travellers must be fully vaccinated and will have to prove they have a place to isolate (home) during their quarantine period. Those who are approved to travel by the state government will have to download the home quarantine app, which uses geo-location and facial recognition technologies to track those in home quarantine.
The app will periodically contact people and ask to prove their location and identity. If a person cannot successfully verify their location or identity within 15 minutes, the state health will notify police who will then carryout an in-person check.
First, faking a GPS location is not that difficult. Remember Pokémon Go and all hacks that came out for GPS spoofing? Pokémon Go creator Niantic is still struggling to keep the hackers away on their platform.
Second, facial recognition technologies are biased and are not optimised to work on darker skin tones. Even the big tech giants like Amazon have failed to implement a solution that is inclusive.
Netflix documentary Coded Bias is a thrilling watch on how facial recognition technologies are implemented and bias towards white male.
Above all, who are the guardians of the data collected? Do other systems or agencies have access to it? Whoever is developing this app, we can only assume they are following the “best practices” and standards.
Would I trade?
NO.
HOWEVER, my family lives in New Zealand and I haven’t seen them for over a year and this has been the longest time I’ve been apart from my family. If this is what it takes to see them, yes I am ok with giving up my privacy.
