Since the outbreak of COVID-19, governments have turned their attention to digital contact tracing. In many countries, public debate has focused on the risks this technology poses to privacy, with advocates and experts sounding alarm bells about surveillance and mission creep reminiscent of the post 9/11 era. Yet, when Apple and Google launched their contact tracing API in April 2020, some of the world’s leading privacy experts applauded this initiative for its privacy-preserving technical specifications. In an interesting twist, the tech giants came to be portrayed as greater champions of privacy than some democratic governments. This article proposes to view the Apple/Google API in terms of a broader phenomenon whereby tech corporations are encroaching into ever new spheres of social life. From this perspective, the (legitimate) advantage these actors have accrued in the sphere of the production of digital goods provides them with (illegitimate) access to the spheres of health and medicine, and more worrisome, to the sphere of politics. These sphere transgressions raise numerous risks that are not captured by the focus on privacy harms. Namely, a crowding out of essential spherical expertise, new dependencies on corporate actors for the delivery of essential, public goods, the shaping of (global) public policy by non-representative, private actors and ultimately, the accumulation of decision-making power across multiple spheres. While privacy is certainly an important value, its centrality in the debate on digital contact tracing may blind us to these broader societal harms and unwittingly pave the way for ever more sphere transgressions.
In discussing 'contact tracing and the automation of a public health practice' Sharon states
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, governments and health authorities around the world have attempted to mobilize digital technologies to address this novel threat, including the use of tracker wristbands, smartphone applications, thermal cameras, facial recognition and drones (The Economist 2020). In the prolonged anticipation of more permanent solutions like a vaccine, contact tracing apps in particular are being explored as tools to help contain the spread of the virus (EC 2020; WHO 2020). Contact tracing is a time-tested method that has been successfully used to fight infectious disease outbreaks including syphilis, measles, HIV and Ebola. It involves identifying infected individuals and informing the people they have been in contact with that they are at risk, through a meticulous process of retracing where and with whom an infected individual has been in proximity. Automated contact tracing offers several advantages over traditional contact tracing in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic (CDC 2020a; Ferreti et al. 2020). First, it seeks to automate a labor-intensive practice in a situation where there is a scarcity of human contact tracers. Moreover, it may offer more accuracy where human memories are fallible—particularly in the case of COVID-19, where infection can be asymptomatic for up to two weeks. The speed of contagion of the COVID-19 virus, finally, requires swift contact tracing in order to be effective. Digital contact tracing seeks to address these limitations, by providing speed, scale and accuracy.
As with many attempts at automation, numerous obstacles impede the path to smooth, seamless digital contact tracing. It is not at all clear, in the first instance, that these contact tracing apps will be effective (Ada Lovelace Institute 2020). In countries where digital contact tracing was first deployed, such as China, Singapore and South Korea, the actual role of this technique in controlling the spread of infections is ambiguous (Frieden 2020). Accuracy is another major concern here. Bluetooth, currently the preferred technology for digital contact tracing, can result in high amounts of false positives, by picking up “contacts” that are not epidemiologically significant (Lee 2020; Vaughn 2020). Effective digital contact tracing also relies on a high level of uptake by the population, which will be difficult to ensure if these systems are to be voluntary (Hinch et al. 2020). This issue is complicated by the question of who can participate in digital contact tracing. Not everyone has access to a smartphone, even in wealthier nations. And of those who do, an estimated 1.5 billion people globally still use basic phones that do not have the necessary technical requirements, such as Bluetooth “low energy” chips, that are being used in many contact tracing apps (Counterpoint 2020). Importantly, these populations tend to be lower socio-economic groups and older people, exactly those people who are also among the most vulnerable to the virus (O’Neil 2020). While these limitations have dampened some of the initial enthusiasm around digital contact tracing as an easy solution to curbing the spread of the virus, the technology is still seen as an important complement in national post-lockdown strategies. At the time of writing, at least 80 contact tracing systems have been launched or are in development around the world,1 and supra-national bodies like the European Commission and the WHO are publishing guidelines for app development, or developing their own (EC 2020; Dave 2020).
Beyond these more practical questions, one of the major points of contention in the implementation of digital contact tracing has been its potential to cause harm through privacy breaches (Ienca and Vayena 2020; McGee et al. 2020). In Europe and the United States, in particular, where public awareness on the use of digital surveillance for public interests has gained a heightened sensitivity to privacy issues since the Snowden revelations, this triggered a vigorous public debate on the need to develop privacy-friendly digital contact tracing. Yet, when Apple and Google—corporations whose data practices are typically the focus of ethical debate—launched their contact tracing API in April 2020, some of the world’s leading privacy experts applauded this initiative for its privacy-preserving technical specifications. In an interesting twist, the tech giants came to be portrayed as greater champions of privacy than some European governments.
This article explores what else is at stake when two of the world’s most powerful corporations move into the field of pandemic response management, even when this is done in a privacy-preserving manner. Drawing on Michael Walzer’s (1983) theory of justice, and the autonomy of spheres of social life as a precondition for equality and justice, I propose to view the Apple/Google API in terms of a broader phenomenon of powerful tech corporations encroaching into ever new spheres, by virtue of the fact that their digital expertise has become a coveted currency in almost all spheres of life. From this perspective, the (legitimate) advantage that tech companies have accrued in the sphere of the production of digital goods provides them with (illegitimate) access to the spheres of health and medicine, and more worrisome, to the sphere of politics. Each of these transgressions, I explain, poses specific risks that are not captured by the focus on privacy harms. Encroachment into the sphere of health and medicine can lead to a crowding out of significant traditional sectorial expertise and the reorganization of health and medicine in line with the values and interests of corporate actors. Encroachment into the sphere of politics can lead to new dependencies on corporate actors for the delivery of essential public goods, often underpinned by relationships of charity and gratitude rather than justice and duty, and ultimately to the shaping of public policy by non-elected, unaccountable actors. The overall risk is an accrual of advantage and power across spheres—what Walzer calls tyranny. While privacy is an important intrinsic and instrumental value, the centrality that it has received in the debate on digital contact tracing, and arguably in other debates on digitalization, may blind us to these broader societal harms and unwittingly pave the way for ever more sphere transgressions.
