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The Question of Privacy

By Suchi Patel

Are you willing to forfeit some privacy for security?

This seems to be a question that divides many people and rightfully so.

COVID-19 has given many people a new insight on what standards a government should uphold. Listening to professionals, providing health care, and taking necessary precautions for vulnerable communities have come into the mix. Along with that, the idea of privacy has also been brought up.

Are the American people willing to give up some privacy in exchange for health and safety?

This is certainly not the first time for the U.S. that the concept of privacy has become quite frequently debated. In fact, not too long ago, another event shook the country in a much different way.

A Glance at American History

The 9/11 terrorist attack hastened the passage of the Patriot Act. This transformed U.S. surveillance laws and made it infinitely easier to ‘spy’ on Americans, whether it be the FBI tapping in on phone calls, filing through emails, tracking internet activity, or even referencing credit card statements.

While this sounds extremely intrusive, looking back on it nearly after twenty years, a lot of people were not completely opposed to it. In fact, in a survey taken September of 2001, nearly 55% of Americans said the average person will have to sacrifice some freedoms in return for security.

This says a lot about American’s fear directly after a traumatic event happens. They were willing to take precautions after first-hand experiencing what the consequences were if they did not.

Contact Tracing: What is it?

Today, the idea of contact tracing has become the new Patriot Act in the eyes of many Americans.

Contact tracing is an electronic approach to identify those infected with coronavirus and track all of whom that person may have had contact with. Despite this being an innovative way to prevent the spread, there are still many challenges that accompany it. Primarily, privacy concerns.

Healthcare data is protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. While exempt from many privacy controls, it still restricts the sharing such information. Additionally, a 2018 Supreme Court decision ruled that location data through cell-phones is protected by the Fourth Amendment, which alluded to privacy being a right of Americans. Therefore, many see the idea of contact tracing jeopardizing a cornerstone of our democracy.

What is privacy to your country?

When privacy is not secured, then people tend to feel less comfortable with sharing confidential information. Take U.S. Congress committees, for example. Many of the topics they discuss may not be ready to be shared with the public. Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee showed particular opposition to virtual meeting sessions. Many were skipping the calls all together. Among the reasons for not attending were privacy and internet security.

Image from Sky News: Health rating app in China checks if someone is safe to travel.

The Intelligence committee oversees programs including the CIA, FBI, and DEA. So in a way, this shows that even U.S. lawmakers are not willing to risk privacy for the sake of safety, in terms of protecting and representing the American people.

Other nations, like China, have overwhelmingly complied in forfeiting some privacy in exchange for safety. Citizens were willing to provide the healthcare and location information necessary on the contact racing apps to ensure their health. China’s top three telecom companies sent mass text to its users, offering information on places they have traveled in the last month.

These efforts did not go in vain, as China very swiftly slowed the spread of the coronavirus. Even so that other nations also began using technology to they advantage.

On the other hand, many Americans do not feel that contact tracing through cellphones would make much of a difference in slowing the spread of COVID-19. 54% of Americans say it is unacceptable for the government to contact trace someone who may have had contact with someone that test positive for the coronavirus.

Despite this sentiment to protect privacy rights, Congress has introduced the COVID-19 Consumer Data Protection Act to essentially make it optional for a citizen to opt out of transferring their healthcare, location, or any other personal information. However, it allows de-identifiable information to be shared, as the citizens may remain in anonymity.

This is a bipartisan bill, showing that both parties do prioritize the right of privacy.

What does this mean in the long run?

The Patriot Act had quite lasting effects which lends to the fear that contact tracing may become too normalized come the future.

So by the looks of it, it seems that mandated sacrifice of privacy is nowhere near the minds of Americans.

Voluntary, however, seems to be the more appealing approach for Americans to prefer. Our August 3rd seminar sided with a 54% majority that if the U.S. government were to use mobile phone data to enforce quarantine and contract tracing, it must be voluntary.

It is still important to notice that there are Americans willing to sacrifice their privacy. Especially after seeing the success contact tracing had in other nations, many citizens have become more willing to make the forfeit. The seminar’s polls also showed 23% in favor of using mobile phone data, even involuntarily.

It is times like these that make people shift their ideologies when they see more of an urgency, similarly to the Patriot Act.

Data protection and internet privacy are still fairly new problems in the U.S.’s history, so there may be many more ways to deal with this issue.

Although crises have shaken the country in the past, the foundations have remained intact. Thus, many Americans are passionate about protecting this right.


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36 Comments

  1. This is something you touched upon in your post, but I feel that American citizens’ general defense of privacy is connected to our culture. For one thing, the Supreme Court finding that the Fourth Amendment “alluded to privacy being a right of Americans” is a very American practice to me; specifically, it makes me think of the several interpretations of the Second Amendment and the conflicts that arise when the Supreme Court uses different definitions in different cases. The survey from 2001 that said 55% of Americans were willing to give up privacy also factors into this—nationalism probably was a huge factor in this response because of 9/11 and its impact. Perhaps when our country is physically threatened, we’re more willing to give up privacy. In this vein, I feel more Americans would agree with that nowadays if COVID-19 weren’t more of an “invisible threat” in comparison to terrorism.

  2. When I came across this post, I questioned myself, “what could this possibly be.” After reading through, I was a bit confused about what your definition of “privacy” is in the post. For someone who is somewhat apolitical, I was a bit lost. Besides that, this post educated me on what contact tracing is and how it may be the foundation of how our democracy is being imperiled. It is stated in the post that “U.S. lawmakers are not willing to risk privacy for the sake of safety, in terms of protecting and representing the American people.” Is this just based on your previous statement that and intelligence committee oversees the FBI, CIA, etc. or is there more to it?

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