COVID-19, digital privacy, and the social limits on data-focused public health responses

Fahey, Robert A.; Hino, Airo

doi:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102181

Cited by 151 publications

(178 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Fourth, this research enables us to characterise the case as "digital-first solutionism" in e-government when (a) digital capabilities are uncritically advocated to solve a complex problem in the absence of adequate knowledge, (b) in the context of the rise of the surveillance and control society via deliberate government action or ignorance of digital technologies, and (c) of reactive tactics resulting from insufficient crisis readiness. This work thus contributes to the literature on ethics of public management and e-government for crisis management (e.g., Fahey & Hino, 2020;Rowe, 2020a).…”

Section: Conclusion Limitations and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…Alienation from (a) the natural reality of the coronavirus, its aerosol transmission dynamics, and the effects of distance and mask-wearing; (b) the reality that open borders and mobility of European (and other) citizens, both contributed to false consciousness and incomplete knowledge for designing and deploying an adequate digital solution. This alienated knowledge undermined the smartphone app's legitimacy and trustworthiness on account of (a) ineffective contact-tracing due to inappropriate design parameters for distancing; (b) interoperability challenges across smartphone platforms (and service providers); and (c) escalating digital risks to privacy breaches and surveillance of users due both to Bluetooth technology (Hassan et al, 2018) and to the choice of a centralised solution (Fahey & Hino, 2020). We contend that a lack of understanding and false consciousness yields to solutionism.…”

Section: P2: Interoperability Challenges Related To the Choice Of A Smentioning

confidence: 95%

“…The tech giant Alibaba in collaboration with the Hangzhou municipality and the blessing of the Chinese government developed and deployed on February 11 2020, Alipay Health Code, the first smartphone app for COVID-19 contact tracing. Numerous countries quickly followed launching other smartphone contact-tracing apps based on GPS or Bluetooth infrastructure, and using centralised or decentralised approaches for processing contact data (Fahey & Hino, 2020).…”

Section: E-gov Apps For Crisis Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, haste to design it in a short time contributes to ineffective design because designers cannot go against Government's will. French national pride was at stake, Singapore and other Asian countries had already succeeded in deploying effective contact tracing apps (Fahey & Hino, 2020; and Appendix A) and the prominent Oxford team had developed an app for the UK. The problem needed to be solved urgently, and these symbolic pressures also contributed to the digital first solutionist approach that undermined the effectiveness of the app.…”

Section: Propositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contact-tracing apps and alienation in the age of COVID-19

Rowe

Ngwenyama

Richet

2020

European Journal of Information Systems

103

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Using a core idea of critical social theory, alienation, we interrogate the failure in the design and adoption of a Stop-COVID app in France. We analyse the political and scientific discourse, to develop an understanding of the conditions giving rise to this failure in this unprecedented moment. We argue that the digital-first solutionist approach taken by the government failed because, as in all Western countries, most stakeholders were alienated from the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic and lacked concrete knowledge of it. Furthermore, the French government and its COVID-19 council excluded relevant scientific experts in favour of quantitative modelling based on abstract partial knowledge. This along with coercion and lack of transparency about the app, reinforced alienation, undermined effectiveness in managing the crisis and resulted in the digital design failure. We suggest that such alienation will prevail in the COVID-19 era characterised by regimes of control, rampant abusive location tracking, and data collection, and where public officials are more concerned with managing effects than seeking causal explanations. The digitalfirst solutionist approach was adopted, not because digital solutions (to contact tracing) are superior to traditional ones, but by default due to alienation and lack of interdisciplinary cooperation.

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Section: Conclusion Limitations and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 84%

Section: P2: Interoperability Challenges Related To the Choice Of A Smentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: E-gov Apps For Crisis Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Propositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contact-tracing apps and alienation in the age of COVID-19

Rowe

Ngwenyama

Richet

2020

European Journal of Information Systems

103

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“…Online education could provide support not only to students but also could help to promote the right education to all [2], specifically to vulnerable communities [40] [65]. From infodemic methods [66] to more common innovations and digital technologies [67], the use of such platforms should not neglect the inequalities [68], privacy [69], and governance [70].…”

Section: Make Good Use Of the Right Platformsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reflection on Early Lessons for Urban Resilience and Public Health Enhancement during the COVID-19

Cheshmehzangi¹

2020

Health

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With growing impacts on public health systems and economies across the world, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, we need to reflect on some of the early lessons for urban resilience enhancement. In this paper, a brief discussion is made through several recommendations that could make our cities more prepared specially in the probable future waves of this current outbreak or potential spikes in infections or clustered cases. The experiences from global examples highlighted in this study address what has worked in the past few months at the spatial levels of communities and cities. The COVID-19 outbreak highlighted the deficiencies and shortfall across multiple sectors of the urban systems and enabled us to identify risks, challenges, and pathways to better city management. With regard to urban resilience enhancement, the negative impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak are assessed to suggest a checklist of what could be done through early preparedness. The findings are novel in ongoing research related to urban resilience and public health during the COVID-19 pandemic. The early lessons here reflect on the ongoing situation of this pandemic outbreak, but could effectually help to enhance the resilience of our cities and communities, and especially addressing the protection of public health and societal well-being. The findings contribute to major sectors of urban resilience, city management, and public health. The recommendations from this study could be utilised and adapted in any context, allowing for the consideration of all-inclusive decision-making and much-enhanced planning processes.

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Information practices in data analytics for supporting public health surveillance

Zhang,

Pee,

Pan

et al. 2023

Asso for Info Science & Tech

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Public health surveillance based on data analytics plays a crucial role in detecting and responding to public health crises, such as infectious disease outbreaks. Previous information science research on the topic has focused on developing analytical algorithms and visualization tools. This study seeks to extend the research by investigating information practices in data analytics for public health surveillance. Through a case study of how data analytics was conducted for surveilling Influenza A and COVID‐19 outbreaks, both exploration information practices (i.e., probing, synthesizing, exchanging) and exploitation information practices (i.e., scavenging, adapting, outreaching) were identified and detailed. These findings enrich our empirical understanding of how data analytics can be implemented to support public health surveillance.

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COVID-19, digital privacy, and the social limits on data-focused public health responses

Cited by 151 publications

References 6 publications

Contact-tracing apps and alienation in the age of COVID-19

Contact-tracing apps and alienation in the age of COVID-19

Reflection on Early Lessons for Urban Resilience and Public Health Enhancement during the COVID-19

Information practices in data analytics for supporting public health surveillance

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