The surveillance tradeoff

[Bloomberg]( Follow Us //link.mail.bloombergbusiness.com/click/19884361.89568/aHR0cHM6Ly90d2l0dGVyLmNvbS90ZWNobm9sb2d5/582c8673566a94262a8b49bdB0af38d98 [Get the newsletter]( Hi everyone, it’s Natalia. It’s a time-honored question that’s taken on new urgency: More security, or more privacy? In a desperate effort to contain the pandemic, governments around the world are leaning toward security. Many are rolling out new surveillance initiatives—including culling data from phone carriers and devising mobile tracking apps—to monitor the spread of the virus and measure adherence to lockdown rules. In China, [authorities have used phone carrier data]( to try to trace everyone who’s been in or near Hubei province, home to Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. Singapore’s TraceTogether app uses Bluetooth technology to map close contacts in case a sick person fails to recall all of their social interactions. And Israel has [approved the use]( of tracking technology developed to combat terrorism to trace the movements of coronavirus patients. Even in Europe—the Mecca of privacy regulation—governments are using anonymized mobile data to monitor population movements during containment. The European Union is now looking to pool that data across member states to help with virus research. Meanwhile, there’s talk in some countries of developing a [Singapore-style app](. But while testing and tracing has seen remarkable success in countries like South Korea, it’s not clear how effective those tactics will be in other locations.  Anonymized data might give authorities a general overview if a lockdown is working but it won’t tell them for sure that sick people are staying home. If apps are voluntary, will enough people willingly provide information to make them work? And forcing people to use mobile apps may strip coronavirus sufferers of the incentive to report their illness, or just encourage them to leave their phones at home. Testing is also not yet widespread in parts of the U.S. and Europe, making sweeping tracking efforts potentially moot. Meanwhile, some systems run the risk of accidentally revealing a person's location and health information, which can have major implications for their safety and job status. Privacy advocates also worry that governments that adopt [more surveillance powers]( now may be reluctant to relinquish them when the crisis subsides later. Case in point: The U.S. Patriot Act was first passed after the Sept. 11 attacks but subsequently extended. Still, the scale of the coronavirus crisis is so unlike anything else in the modern era, that even self-described privacy activists say that digital tracing tools could prove useful. "Warning people about these dangers today is like being concerned about black mold growing in the basement when the house is on fire,” Maciej Ceglowski wrote on his [Idle Words blog]( last week. Tracking, combined with aggressive testing, offers real potential to slow the virus's spread and give the vulnerable early warnings, Ceglowski says. Besides, the surveillance digital infrastructure required for such systems is already in the hands of the private industry using it to sell people skin cream. “Why not use it to save lives?” he says. —[Natalia Drozdiak](mailto:ndrosdiak1@bloomberg.net) If you read one thing With big tech's contract workforce sidelined during the pandemic, social media companies are relying on AI to prune their websites. [Software is picking up the slack](, but Facebook and YouTube are already warning that there will be less content moderation and slower customer support. Many experts think the technology is not yet ready to take on the nuanced decision-making required for moderation tasks.  And here’s what you need to know in global technology news An Amazon worker who led a strike over virus safety conditions at one of its warehouses [said he’s been fired](. In earnings news, Meituan Dianping projected losses and a decline in revenue [for the current quarter](. Expedia [withdrew its forecast]( for 2020. And some chipmakers are [seeing a boost]( as more people work from home.  Ultra-private Apple is adjusting to the new [work-from-home normal](. Transportation companies may be reeling, but Via just raised [$400 million](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Fully Charged newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022