By Samantha Cleaver

When student athletes at the University of Louisville returned to campus the first week of June, they were met with drive-up coronavirus testing at the campus stadium.

Besides testing, the University of Louisville campus had put other protections in place, such as allowing only small groups of athletes to return, opening training sites with limited occupancy and encouraging social-distancing and wearing masks.

So far, the athletic department at Louisville has not provided any results from the testing they’ve done, Kenny Klein, senior associate athletic director, told Digital Privacy News.

The sample size has been small, and because so few students were on campus, individuals could be identified through reporting.

As student athletes continue to return to colleges, they are the first wave of university students to experience COVID-19 testing, and the privacy measures that come with it.

Continue reading “College Athletes Returning to Campus with Temp Checks and Contact-Tracing” →

By Samantha Cleaver

Ellen Zavian’s 14-year-old son was interested in the University of Maryland engineering Seaperch camp, but instead of being on campus, it was moved online.

Campers use materials at home and work through experiments led through Zoom calls.

Zavian, a member of the Safe Tech Committee in Montgomery County, Md., outside Washington, read the fine print and saw that campers had the option to use cameras for recordings. She liked that.

For Zavian and her family, the ability to opt out of audio and video recording helped them think through how her son would attend camp securely.

She is one of many parents who find themselves preparing for online summer camp for the first time. On the other side, many camps are moving into the uncharted territory of online programming.

Continue reading “Sun, STEM, Security: Summer Camps Go Virtual and Deal with Privacy Issues” →

By Charles McDermid

Last of two parts.

The United States has done little to implement the data-privacy lessons learned in Asia after regional governments rolled out strict measures to control the spread of COVID-19, analysts told Digital Privacy News. 

In some Asian countries, the tough tactics — contact-tracing apps and so-called digital fencing — drew data-security concerns from an internet-savvy region long weary of hacks, leaks and enhanced surveillance. 

Continue reading “What Has US Learned from Asia’s COVID-Privacy Battle? Not Much, Experts Say” →

By Charles McDermid

First of two parts.

Governments across Asia have recently deployed COVID-19 surveillance measures with the potential to reshape the world’s approach to public-health crises — and to forever alter the global debate over data privacy and protection. 

As the pandemic erupted, Asian nations moved quickly to monitor their citizens: from “digital fencing” in Hong Kong and Taiwan, to color-coded “health passports” in China and India, as well as data-collection platforms in Singapore and South Korea. 

But as the conversation shifted from emergency tactics to the eventual aftermath, many experts wondered which tools would be shut down or dismantled in the post-pandemic world, and how that uncharted process might actually work.

Continue reading “Asia on the Front Lines of COVID Battle, But at What Privacy Cost?” →

By Tammy Joyner 

Where were you on April 1, 2020?

That’s what the U.S. Census Bureau wants to know, but the coronavirus outbreak has made it tough for the agency to conduct its decennial count of America’s population.

With the global pandemic threatening a second — and possibly more virulent— wave, the bureau faces possible further delays in gathering data for the count.

“From the 60,000-foot view, the pandemic has disrupted every single 2020 Census operation — either in small ways or significantly,” Terri Ann Lowenthal, a nationally recognized expert and consultant on the census, told Digital Privacy News. “This is not a minor matter.”

Nearly three months have passed since April 1. The more time passes, the greater likelihood individual responses to the census may be inaccurate, experts said.

Continue reading “Experts: COVID Pandemic Could Jeopardize 2020 Census Count” →

By Mary Pieper

Critics of sharing information about those who are COVID-positive with police and other first responders say it’s a privacy breach that disproportionally affects African Americans and other people of color.

“It’s a perfect storm,” Craig Klugman, professor of bioethics and health humanities at DePaul University in Chicago, told Digital Privacy News. “There’s a lot of distrust out there.”

Klugman and Nashville Metro Council member Colby Sledge in Tennessee said that even before the COVID-19 pandemic, black and immigrant communities were suspicious about how the government used their personal information.

Continue reading “In Nashville, Sharing COVID Data With Police Raises Fears Among Blacks, Immigrants” →

By Joanne Cleaver 

As Americans emerge from sheltering in place, the privacy view from the front door may still be foggy. 

Grace periods that allowed homeowners and renters to skip, reduce or delay monthly housing payments won’t last forever.

But the financial fallout might, housing-finance experts told Digital Privacy News, might force Americans to reveal more personal data than ever to restructure their own housing stability.

The extra $600 a week in unemployment compensation flowing from the federal CARES Act expires next month.

Continue reading “Experts: COVID’s Financial Fallout May Require More Data Than Ever” →

By Todd Feathers

In March, Facebook announced a $100 million grant program for small businesses struggling from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’ve listened to small businesses to understand how we can best help them,” Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg wrote in a March 17 post on the platform. “We’ve heard loud and clear that financial support could enable them to keep the lights on and pay people who can’t come to work.”

The need is great. As of May 29, for instance, the federal Paycheck Protection Program of the U.S. Small Business Administration had approved more than $510 billion in emergency loans to over 4.4 million businesses, agency officials told Digital Privacy News.

Continue reading “Facebook’s Small Business Grants Come With a Big Catch: Your Data” →

What Does COVID-19 Surveillance Portend for Privacy?

By Charles McDermid

The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified fears of a stricter surveillance environment in a world already troubled by huge data breaches and privacy violations, as well as the increasing power of Big Tech. 

Experts now hope the new reality brought on by coronavirus includes heightened awareness and stronger government protections, rather than apathy from a public possibly frustrated by the slow burn of constant data-privacy fears.

Continue reading “A ‘New Normal’?” →

By Samantha Cleaver

Schools across the country started closing because of COVID-19 in mid-March.

But earlier this month, Montana Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock gave schools the option of re-opening for the rest of the school year. He was the first U.S. governor to do so.

Continue reading “As Schools Plan Re-Openings, Privacy Is a Consideration” →

By Joanne Cleaver 

As travel resumes, what health and itinerary information will be attached to individuals’ documents?  

The travel industry has its gloved hands full as it rethinks and reorganizes its mission, functions, design and operations.

A top priority for a consortium of industry trade groups, led by the U.S. Travel Association, includes new types of identifications and related processes for ticketing, check-ins and payments.

Continue reading “Travel Industry Weighs Privacy, Safety in Re-Opening Polices” →

By Joanne Cleaver 

Jacob Furst’s commute from a Chicago neighborhood to his office at DePaul University, where he is director of the school of computing, involves public transportation and walking.

Not that the latest company to surveil the movements of Chicago residents would know: Furst keeps the geolocation function on his cellphone switched off.

Most residents aren’t as meticulous about shielding their routine movements from BlueDot, a Toronto company that is under contract with the city’s Department of Health to see how people are moving around the city and to extract from that data clues as to how to manage and anticipate COVID-19 patterns.

Continue reading “Chicago Deal With Canadian Tracing Firm Brings Myriad Privacy Issues” →

New Issues in Privacy Debate With Technology and Contact-Tracing

By Jeff Benson

Last of two parts.

Contract-tracing raises myriad privacy issues in the coronavirus fight. Today’s report discusses how technology further muddies the waters.

Contact-tracing can involve deep detective work.

People are reluctant to share information with strangers. They forget where they’ve been, or they mix up Tuesday with Wednesday.

All of which makes it difficult to pinpoint close contacts.

Incorporating modern technology, from Bluetooth-based location tracking to app integrations that pull data from patients’ calendars, could make contact-tracing faster but would introduce fresh privacy concerns.

Ironically, the fight around contact-tracing apps could focus attention on our expectations of medical privacy more generally.

Continue reading “‘The Perfect Privacy Storm’” →