Balancing Tracking Technologies and Privacy Concerns in COVID-19 Fight

Students wear protective face masks as they ride on a street in Taipei, Taiwan, on April 21, 2020. Taiwan used location-tracking capabilities in smartphones to great effectiveness during the pandemic. AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying

As many countries resort to using contact tracing technologies to contain the spread of COVID-19, concerns are being raised about risks to privacy and the willingness of citizens to forfeit civil liberties in the effort to combat the virus.

Mass surveillance through new technologies that use cellphone data to track the location of those infected has particularly raised red flags.