How much surveillance is acceptable to stop the spread of a deadly virus? This France 24 report re-opens the debate:
Over 1,5 billion people worldwide are now under lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic.
With that comes increasing concerns about a potential abuse of power.
Leila Choukroune, professor at the University of Portsmouth, tells us more.
France 24 YouTube Channel
France 24 pointed out Russia’s use of 100,000 facial recognition cameras in an effort to prevent people from ignoring quarantine rules earlier this week.
In Britain, the Government sent an SMS text message to all citizens with a mobile telephone, telling them to “stay at home” despite having shelved plans for a nationwide alert system five years ago.
Certainly, when the dust settles on the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, some sense will need to be made of how far technology can and should be used to track data which is potentially life saving in future; and if it is worth the cost.