Page 9 - The Next Pandemic: What's to Come?

The next pandemic is sure to bring concerns about privacy as governments
increase surveillance to detect outbreaks. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) made widespread use of facial-recognition
software and public security cameras to collect data on possible infections. The
CCP also mandated a smartphone tracking app that used a color-coded system
to govern travel. Green meant the user could move relatively freely, while red
forced the person into fourteen days of quarantine. The app’s 700 million users
had to show their color status before boarding a train or entering a supermar-
ket. The app also shared location data with police.
The idea of using such measures to ght a pandemic in the United States
alarms those who advocate for privacy rights. Security cameras are already a fea-
ture of American daily life. New technologies can t these devices with sensors
to capture more personal information than just images. “Making this information
available has [public health] uses, but it also has downsides if it is used in the
wrong manner,” says computer science professor Madhav Marathe. “We have to
decide as a society at what point of time we are willing to give up basic rights.”

Quoted in Casey Ross, “After 9/11, We Gave Up Privacy for Security. Will We Make the Same Trade-Off After
Covid-19?,” StatNews, April 8, 2020. www.statnews.com.

vision and artifi cial intelligence to gather and analyze health data
in public settings. Machine vision refers to computerized cameras
that scan the environment and inspect images for different pur-
poses. They are placed at high-traffi c areas such as airport ter-
minals, sports arenas, and shopping malls. The visual data they
collect can provide remarkable clues to possible viral infections.
Binah, an Israeli tech company, has developed software for
health-related facial scanning. It employs a technology found on
Fitbit devices or smart watches called remote photoplethysmog-
raphy. It measures vital signs via a series of light fl ashes on the
back of the smart device. The light fl ashes scan a person’s skin
for changes in fi ve key vital signs. These include heart rate, respi-
ration rate, oxygen saturation, mental stress level, and heart rate
variability. Binah plans to add blood pressure monitoring as well.
The software works by measuring slight variations in skin tone

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