First let me begin with a hat tip to Jason Kottke who has an excellent article on this subject.
He reproduced a great graphic from Nicky Case which I will reproduce below, but the gist is that if we arrange for privacy-forward contact tracing, we can get ahead of the spread of Covid-19 and help prevent further injuries, deaths and spread of the disease, without sacrificing our civil liberties.
Fortunately there are good, viable solutions out there to these problems that don’t necessarily involve government types getting their sticky little mitts all over things.
All that is to say that yes, Covid is a serious problem, and yes, governments the world over are unfortunately using this opportunity to grab for more power – those things can both be true at the same time.
Remember, as Rahm Emanuel famously did, we should never let a good crisis go to waste…
That’s enough of that for today, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to comment a bit on this situation. Be safe, and remember to wash your hands.
-T