Snowden was right: Pandemic surveillance is here to stay

COVID-19 isn’t the first global pandemic, but it is the first of the algorithmic age. This has created both opportunities and threats. While evangelists argue that tech is curbing the virus, critics are concerned that it’s supercharging surveillance. Edward Snowden raised the alarm about the drawbacks in March 2020 — days after the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a pandemic. The whistleblower warned that the systems being launched would be hard to remove once the pandemic receded. “When we see emergency measures passed, particularly today, they tend to be sticky,” he said. “The emergency tends to be expanded. Then…

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