Don’t let California government use COVID-19 as an excuse to expand surveillance

Despite heroic efforts by local public health experts and the state’s proactive shelter-in-place orders, we have now lost over one thousand Californians to COVID-19.

This virus is a formidable opponent. Fighting it effectively will require our leaders to make smart choices that align with medical evidence and address the staggering racial and economic disparities of this disease.

As such, it’s critical that California’s pandemic response be led by public health experts, not by tech companies that lack a commitment to protecting constitutional rights, civil liberties and civil rights.

In the coming weeks and months, politicians across the country will promote the widespread use of invasive digital and biometric surveillance. Yet we should be skeptical of legislation openly, or secretly, written by corporations that stand to profit by further tracking people’s movements.

In California and throughout the United States, closed-door meetings between tech companies and government officials are worrying because they have the potential to steer response to COVID-19 in the wrong direction. Simply put, from a public health perspective, most of the technologies touted are ineffective.

In recent weeks, companies have promoted flawed fever-tracking technology, which comes with a hefty price tag but provides no effective relief in identifying coronaviruses.

These devices are marketed with added capacity for facial recognition. This is a cause for deep concern – not just because of the high error rate. All types of tracking devices – facial recognition or other surveillance tools – can later be deployed to further erode constitutional liberties. Federal immigration officials have already exploited face surveillance to track and detain people for deportation.

As responses to COVID-19 are developed, efforts must be taken to avoid exacerbating existing disparities. This disease falls heaviest on the most vulnerable communities.

In Wisconsin, where African Americans comprise only six percent of the state’s population, they account for more than 50 percent of the deaths.

Much like the novel coronavirus, invasive government scrutiny does not burden all of us equally. It magnifies the harm in every unjust system it touches – from criminal justice to immigration enforcement – where civil liberties violations against people of color are already endemic.

Sadly, national crises present opportunities to erode civil liberties.

In Bolivia, elections were canceled. Hungary’s leadership restricted freedom of speech and has now criminalized speech that would interfere with the government’s response to COVID-19. They have also suspended elections. Israel ordered the closure of courts.

In the wake of 9/11, the Patriot Act was rushed through Congress, with some legislators later admitting they had not completely read the legislation. Vast government spying on the digital lives of Americans also ensued, with the help of telecommunications companies – all without warrants.

To be sure, COVID-19 may necessitate changes to how we live our lives – but those changes should be calibrated to align with medical evidence. This means investing in thorough, accessible, and rigorous testing.

In California, let’s reinforce our medical infrastructure. Let’s acquire more ventilators, increase intensive care capacity and provide essential health workers an ongoing supply of personal protective equipment (PPE). Let’s expand telemedicine for time-sensitive and essential services like reproductive health.

Let’s invest in the state’s universities and colleges to study coronaviruses and pathways for vaccines. These would be proactive, medically effective next steps.

When the California Legislature returns this month, we will have critical choices to make. A bill proposed by Assemblymember Ed Chau, Assembly Bill 2261, would usher in the kind of surveillance systems that are exactly the wrong response to this crisis.

This bill would permit the deployment of dangerous face-scanning systems and make it more difficult for Californians to regulate their use. Many of these systems are simply flawed and incapable of distinguishing people, especially people of color.

Amid a global pandemic, this legislation could lead to Californians being denied essential needs and services – like housing, employment, and access to healthcare – based on a flawed scan of their face. Those “faceprints” would then reside forever in a corporate or government database and used for criminal or profit purposes unrelated to the pandemic.

As lawmakers look ahead, guarding against legislation that further hinders or burdens civil liberties must be a priority. Policies that restrict civil liberties should be limited, temporary, and only pursued if determined to be medically beneficial.

COVID-19 should not be the cause for expanding government or corporate spying, or justification for engaging in lucrative contracts that line the coffers of tech companies but don’t benefit the public.

It is well within our power to saves lives while also protecting the freedoms guaranteed by our state and federal constitutions.