COVID-19 Contact Tracing: Privacy and Security Risks
Episode Description
Tech giants & startups are quickly releasing “cutting edge” COVID-19 tracing tools. Some states have built their own tracing tools. COVID-19 tracing is absolutely necessary to get the pandemic under control. But are those tools secure? Will the privacy of the individuals’ health data be protected? • What tracing tools are being used? Which best protect privacy? Which put privacy at risk? • How do certain phones and operating systems put patient data from tracing tools at risk? • What are the concerns for location tracking? Is location tracking even necessary for effective COVID tracing? • What are some COVID-19 tracing conspiracy theories? Hear uberveillance, privacy and security expert, Dr. Katina Michael, professor at Arizona State University and National Science Foundation funded researcher, answer these questions and more about COVID-19 tracing tools and the related privacy risks and considerations. Read some of her research about this topic at https://bit.ly/3hG1FHb
Biography:
Katina Michael is a professor at Arizona State University, holding a joint appointment in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and School of Computing, Informatics and Decisions Systems Engineering. She is also the director of the Society Policy Engineering Collective (SPEC) and the Editor in Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society. Katina is a Public Interest Technology advocate who emphasizes privacy and security by design. Since 1997, Katina has been studying the potential for microchipping humans for medical and non-medical applications. She has been funded by the Australian Research Council in the field of location-based services, and the National Science Foundation for research into smart cities and the future of work. Together with her husband MG Michael, she has pioneered the concept of uberveillance in the context of smart applications and associated unintended consequences. www.katinamichael.com
Source: Katina Michael with Rebecca Herold, August 1, 2020, “COVID-19 Contact Tracing: Privacy and Security Risks”, Data Security and Privacy with the Privacy Professor, https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/124856/covid-19-contact-tracing-privacy-and-security-risks