The COVID-19 tracing app: Should we fear it as much as we do?

In 1999 the formidable writer Aaron Sorkin created the TV series West Wing. It was a fictional account of an American president and his staff in the West Wing. In series 1 the character of Sam Seaborne (played by Rob Lowe) raises the importance of the right to privacy for all people.

“The 1920s and 1930s were about the role of government. The ’50s and ‘60s were about civil rights,” he said. “However, the next two decades are going to be about privacy. We are talking about the internet, cell phones, health records… In a country which was born on the will to be free, what can be more fundamental than privacy?”

How prophetic!

A few weeks ago President Ramaphosa urged South Africans to download the COVID App. This app is a tracking app, which takes note of your movements through your cellular, blue tooth or Wi-Fi connectivity in order to be able to inform you if you have been in close contact with someone who has been infected with COVID-19.

Despite Ramaphosa’s assurance that the data will not be stored, alarmist videos and voice notes started to circulate on social media encouraging people not to download the app. The main objections lie around the loss of privacy.

The authors of these notes warn people that this app will be able to know the movements of an individual (or more accurately their cell phone and/or I-pad).

That is true, but how else would you be able to get a warning of having been in proximity of someone who has tested positive for the coronavirus?

Secondly, they warn that the app is always running and never goes to sleep even when you don’t use your phone. Again, that seems rather obvious to me. It would be pretty useless to have such an app if it goes to sleep when I have my phone in my handbag in a shopping mall.

Thirdly, they raise the issue that because the app allows access to your Bluetooth connections (for eg. in your car) that the government now will know a lot of information about you, such as what car you’re driving.

I hate to break it to these guys, but they know already. Remember those little license discs you have to renew every year? They know practically everything about the car as well as its owner. 

Even though I found the arguments of these authors unconvincing it is important to not be complacent about privacy. I certainly value mine.

The only problem is that unless you live in some totally remote location with no internet or cell phone connectivity and most importantly NO social media presence, you have lost the battle for privacy a long time ago. 

In 2018 Dylan Curran, who does extensive research into spreading technical awareness and improving digital etiquette, wrote an article in which he warned about the amount of information Google and Facebook already have about us.

According to Curran, Google knows and stores data on where you have been (if your location devices are turned on), every search you have ever done on Google or YouTube and every app you have ever used. They even know (through your calendar) which events you attended and which you declined. Through Fitbits and other health devices, they can track your work-out regimes. They also store every email and every image you ever downloaded – even if you have deleted them.

 Curran calculated that Google has enough data on all of us to fill 3 million Word documents per person.

Facebook also has reams of data on us. They store what we might be interested in based on the conversations we are having with our friends and the things we “like”. They also store all the applications we ever connected to our accounts, so our interests are known to them. They use this information to create algorithms and manipulate us through advertising and biased news feeds. (Have a look at “The Social Dilemma” on Netflix if you want to learn more.)

I don’t like this one bit, which is part of the reason why I stay off social media, but I know that even so, there are loads of data on me on some server at Google.

We have to accept that the privacy horse has bolted.

 These COVID tracking apps are a world-wide phenomenon and not something unique to our “dictatorial and evil government” as some of these commentators are suggesting. Many countries, including New Zealand, the UK, Canada, Australia, and Germany are using them.

In our case, our government has assured us that they are not storing any of our personal data. Like me, you might feel sceptical about this. However, Norton Rose Fulbright – an independent think tank - did a global study on the risk these COVID tracking apps pose for citizens’ privacy in the individual countries.

 In South Africa’s case, they seemed confident that data is not stored on a centralised government or private sector linked database, and that there are clear limitations to how and for what purposes the government may use the data that they can access.

I still don’t like the idea of the government knowing my (or my cell phone’s) movements. However, in the end, I always have to ask the question: “If you are not doing anything wrong or illegal, why worry about whether or not the government follows your movements?”

In any case, I doubt seriously that they are interested in my regular visits to my local coffee shop, nor do they have the capacity to do that for 55 million citizens.

Sam Seaborne was right. Privacy is one of the most central questions of our time. However, it is difficult to see how we can roll back what we have already lost.

If in the meantime we can assist in preventing the further spread of this deadly disease it seems to me we should do it.