TRACKING & TRACING Preventing Misuse of COVID-Related Tech Preventing and reducing the spread of the COVID-19 virus is a public health priority. Over a million people have died, and although early reports suggest vaccines will be available by early-2021, it will take time before we learn about their long-term effectiveness. Targeted lockdowns significantly reduced exposure and death rates. Human rights law permits states to impose restrictions at the time of a public emergency. Social distancing, isolating those exposed to the virus, and testing, tracing, tracking and treating the sick all continue to be legitimate priorities. However, protecting health can clash with the right to privacy and the right to political participation, and also raises the risk of other civil liberties – such as freedom of expression, security of person, and freedom from restrictions – being curtailed. Certain human rights are derogable, but certain core rights are not. Human rights risks have grown as governments deployed crime prevention methods and technologies to tackle the spread, in some cases treating patients as potential criminals. The regulatory framework is inadequate. COVID-19 responses in many instances suffer from lack of transparency, and there are questions over accountability and surveillance. Adding further complexity, tests for the virus are not always accurate. Some policies go too far in monitoring people, alongside concerns about responsible business conduct. prevent spread, but may themselves lead to further risks to rights protections. Companies that use or deploy such technologies are central actors in this context, as the effectiveness of these tools rests on the assumption that everyone has a smart phone and access to high-speed networks. The technology is not failsafe; it is approximate (identifying location, but not elevation), and people can game the system (for example, by carrying multiple phones). App developers access and retain far more data than is strictly necessary. This is infrastructure for surveillance, not health-care. “ Responsible tech companies will need to work with privacy experts and human rights lawyers to ensure that in trying to build a healthy society they do not end up constructing a surveillance state. ” In the year ahead, companies developing these and other technologies to combat COVID-19 will have to demonstrate that their products are necessary, proportionate, applied in a nondiscriminatory manner, and legal. Responsible tech companies will need to work with privacy experts and human rights lawyers to ensure that in trying to build a healthy society they do not end up constructing a surveillance state. Employee monitoring, including movement and proximity tracking is a mounting concern. Tools such as QR codes, electronic anklets, and bracelets, technologies like facial recognition, geo-fencing, and drones have been deployed, ostensibly to & Human Rights 2021 Business Top 10 Issues Institute for Human Rights and Business 7