Covid -19 has been described as the “invisible enemy”. While that is undoubtedly correct, the real dilemma is how we fight this invisible enemy without undermining our long-standing democratic values, including the right to personal privacy.
It is clear that the government, through the Ministry of Health, has struggled to contact trace those with the virus. It is equally clear that technology offers a solution.
Now that Australia has released its version of Singapore’s TraceTogether app, pressure on the New Zealand government will increase.
While there are significant benefits, there are also significant risks involved in going down this route. Around the world, the Covid-19 pandemic has become a battleground over whether monitoring/state surveillance or privacy should take precedence.
While New Zealand should use all the tools at its disposal, including technology, we need to find the right balance between more effective contact tracing, and privacy. That means ensuring that any legislation has adequate privacy safeguards. As a minimum, any contact tracing app must be voluntary, transparent and used only to support public health measures for the containment of the pandemic.
My concern is that there has been insufficient public information on just what the government is planning to do and therefore limited informed discussion about the options and, more importantly, the wider ramifications.
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