the WORLD to COME

WITH the GLOBAL HEALTH CRISIS, THE TIME is RIGHT FOR US TO REASSESS ALMOST ALL SYSTEMS as WE KNOW THEM: our VALUES, PRIVACY, AND ETHICS. AS PART OF the UNESCO FORUM’S DIALOGUE ON the FUTURE WORLD ORDER, ELLE SPEAKS to FOUR FEMALE LEADERS of TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCES ABOUT HOW HUMANITY MIGHT EVOLVE, and WHY SEEMINGLY COUNTERINTUITIVE BEHAVIOURS MIGHT JUST ALLOW US to EMERGE TRIUMPHANT

DOROTHEA BAUR

Consultant specialising in business ethics and AI ethics Founder of Baur Consulting

How does the COVID-19 pandemic change privacy?

The pandemic has sparked an intense debate on privacy. It is clear we urgently need to contain the pandemic, and we need to monitor its spread. But there is a danger that the urgency could give a strong push toward the use of surveillance technology. It could justify the use of tools that, under normal circumstances, would not be acceptable. How much should we trust digital monitoring? Can we opt out of it? Should digital surveillance decide who can move around freely, and who is quarantined? We might also wonder: Will the pandemic serve as pretext for using particularly controversial tools? For example, some companies have already started buying thermal, facial recognition cameras, and use it to screen the workers for COVID-19 symptoms. There’s a legitimate worry, when such technology is in use it could rapidly become the new normal. In the end it could be used on a much wider scale, and for much longer than effectively required by the pandemic.

What new forms of solidarity can we envision after the crisis?