School of Professional Studies
Securing Privacy During a World Health Emergency: Exploring How to Create a Balance Between the Need to Save the World and People’s Right to Privacy
Document Type
Book Chapter
Abstract
Many people describe 2020 as the year the world gave up on privacy. It was the year of the COVID-19 pandemic when countries all over the world shutdown. It was the year we saw many of these countries anxiously turning to technology (and the data it generated) for answers. In detail, many governments churned out mobile technologies to track and trace their citizens to try to understand and control the spread of the virus. Such applications with their location tracking raised serious privacy concerns, however, governments were desperate. Moreover, it was the year that everyone went online; locked up in their homes, people shopped, worked, studied and socialised online. This also generated a new wave of privacy and security risks, however, people were also desperate to hang onto any bit of normality that they could salvage. Indeed, it is an interesting narrative: the issue of securing privacy rights during a world health emergency. This chapter will give a glimpse into the pre-COVID-19 data protection environment before discussing some of the main changes to data brought about by COVID-19. Now, in the aftermath of the pandemic, the chapter will reflect on some of the challenges to data protection that society still faces. Finally, envisioning a future, the authors will consider some possible solutions to ensure an ethically safe yet prosperous technological data enhanced existence.
Publication Title
Data Protection in a Post-Pandemic Society
Publication Date
5-8-2023
First Page
145
Last Page
167
ISBN
9783031340062
DOI
10.1007/978-3-031-34006-2_5
Keywords
data protection, privacy protection, information security, post-pandemic, COVID-19
Repository Citation
Yu, Shasha and Carroll, Fiona, "Securing Privacy During a World Health Emergency: Exploring How to Create a Balance Between the Need to Save the World and People’s Right to Privacy" (2023). School of Professional Studies. 8.
https://commons.clarku.edu/sops_fac/8
