Ethics in the COVID-19 pandemic: myths, false dilemmas, and moral overload

Ishmaev, Georgy; Dennis, Matthew; Hoven, M.J. van den

doi:10.1007/s10676-020-09568-6

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(21 reference statements)

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“…Research and development lifecycles have been accelerated dramatically, bringing spectacular scientific breakthroughs such as new COVID treatments, as well as complex challenges. These shortened lifecycles mean that sometimes raw technological solutions were deployed at scale without proper assessments of safety, security and ethical issues (Ishmaev et al, 2021;Lanzing, 2021). Furthermore, these examples have made it evident that these large scale and high impact deployments are at the liberty of a handful of gatekeepers, like pharmaceutical giants or digital platforms.…”

Section: Methodological Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Values for a Post-Pandemic Future

Dennis

Ishmaev

Umbrello

et al. 2022

Philosophy of Engineering and Technology

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The costs of the COVID-19 pandemic are yet to be calculated, but they include the loss of millions of lives and the destruction of countless livelihoods. What is certain is that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has changed the way we live for the foreseeable future. It has forced many to live in ways they would have previously thought impossible. As well as challenging scientists and medical professionals to address urgent value conflicts in the short term, COVID-19 has raised slower-burning value questions for corporations, public institutions, governments, and policymakers. In simple terms, the pandemic has brought what we care about into sharp relief, both collectively and individually. Whether this revaluation of our values will last beyond the current pandemic is unknown. Once COVID-19 has been tamed, will the desire to return to our previous lives be irresistible? Or will living under pandemic conditions have taught us something that will be incorporated into how we design our future lives and technologies? These are hard questions for the ethics of technology, which this volume aims to explore and address.

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Section: Methodological Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Values for a Post-Pandemic Future

Dennis

Ishmaev

Umbrello

et al. 2022

Philosophy of Engineering and Technology

Self Cite

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“…Kolasa et al ( 2021 ) verify that “contact tracing apps with high levels of compliance with standards of data privacy tend to fulfill public health interests to a limited extent. Simultaneously, digital technologies with a lower level of data privacy protection allow for the collection of more data.” However, this is considered by Ishmaev et al ( 2021 ) as a “false dilemma” and a tradeoff between privacy concerns associated with tracing apps and their positive health impacts has been an essential topic in ethical considerations among researchers (Bruneau, 2020 ; Ekong et al, 2020a , 2020b ; Klar & Lanzerath, 2020 ; Leslie, 2020 ). In light of COVID-19 pandemic, the view of not sharing any private information for any reason has been given less attention since the privacy infringement is less intrusive than population-level lockdowns (Parker et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Findings and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracing app technology: an ethical review in the COVID-19 era and directions for post-COVID-19

et al. 2022

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We conducted a systematic literature review on the ethical considerations of the use of contact tracing app technology, which was extensively implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. The rapid and extensive use of this technology during the COVID-19 pandemic, while benefiting the public well-being by providing information about people’s mobility and movements to control the spread of the virus, raised several ethical concerns for the post-COVID-19 era. To investigate these concerns for the post-pandemic situation and provide direction for future events, we analyzed the current ethical frameworks, research, and case studies about the ethical usage of tracing app technology. The results suggest there are seven essential ethical considerations—privacy, security, acceptability, government surveillance, transparency, justice, and voluntariness—in the ethical use of contact tracing technology. In this paper, we explain and discuss these considerations and how they are needed for the ethical usage of this technology. The findings also highlight the importance of developing integrated guidelines and frameworks for implementation of such technology in the post- COVID-19 world. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10676-022-09659-6.

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“…Still, the risk of misuse and vulnerability of personal information collected on a large scale (e.g., due to hacking or cyberattacks) remains (Klar & Lanzerath, 2020). Furthermore, absent evidence on the efficacy of the apps, users' information privacy may be threatened by a lack of proportionality, as well as the risk of function creep if the data collected through the apps is repurposed, potential ignorance of sunset clauses and continued use of the apps even after the Covid-19 pandemic is declared contained, and the risk of unrevealed non-voluntariness if social or economic conditions render the use of the apps obligatory in some de facto way (Ishmaev, Dennis, & van den Hoven, 2021). Furthermore, information privacy risks arise in cases where malevolent users can infer from the app who may be infected, state-level agents or service providers can access personal user information illegitimately, or if such information is leaked due to negligence or malicious attacks (Boutet et al, 2020).…”

Section: Information Privacy In the Context Of Covid-19 Contact Traci...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, voluntariness only protects people's information privacy in a normative sense. As Ishmaev et al (2021) point out, even if adoption and use of apps for Covid-19 contact tracing is declared non-mandatory, social or economic conditions may still create pressure to do so.…”

Section: Australasian Journal Of Information Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applied Ethics and Digital Information Privacy: Informing the Design of Covid-19 Contact Tracing Apps

Eismann

Fischer-Preßler

Fischbach

2022

AJIS

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To counteract the spread of Covid-19, many countries have introduced mobile applications for contact tracing, which raises considerable questions about how these apps protect users’ information privacy. Through an exploratory analysis of Covid-19 contact tracing apps being used in Australia, France, Germany, Japan, and New Zealand, we identify normative and technical principles for the design of privacy-sensitive contact tracing apps. Based on a Restricted Access/Limited Control (RALC) account of information privacy, we discuss how the apps protect users’ information privacy through limiting access to and allowing users to actively manage their personal information. Our findings illustrate what understanding of information privacy is evident from the various designs of Covid-19 contact tracing apps, and how competing design principles can contribute to users’ information privacy. From a practical perspective, our findings can inform the design of contact tracing apps and the development of privacy approaches that can be applied in particular contexts. Our work thus bridges the gap between ethical design guidelines and technical analyses of specific implementations.

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Ethics in the COVID-19 pandemic: myths, false dilemmas, and moral overload

Cited by 13 publications

References 26 publications

Values for a Post-Pandemic Future

Values for a Post-Pandemic Future

Tracing app technology: an ethical review in the COVID-19 era and directions for post-COVID-19

Applied Ethics and Digital Information Privacy: Informing the Design of Covid-19 Contact Tracing Apps

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