Technology

The COVID-19 crisis has exposed the ugly consequences of digital inequities around the world. The most privileged can rely on online tools as digital lifeboats while those with limited or no access are left adrift. The definition of internet access as a human right has to be expanded to include access to universal, reliable and affordable high-speed internet.

The coronavirus pandemic forced half of the German working population to work from home. A majority was happy with the move, an early study indicates. If the broadband expansion catches up in the countryside, many might never go back.

A strong sense of regional sovereignty in the Canadian health care system may lead to different choices for technologies to track and contain the spread of the coronavirus. A multiplicity of non-interoperable apps could put their effectiveness in question and could create inconsistent approaches to privacy.

Tech will not free us from coronavirus, but it can provide us with helpful tools – if we foster an open and democratic debate on how to use it. 

The debate over the data storage model of a coronavirus tracing app shows how the German government’s search for digital infection control tools became caught up between public health officials, privacy experts and the US tech industry. 

COVID-19 uniquely affects women. Here are many of the ways it does.

As European countries turn to apps to contain the pandemic, the EU must weigh the public health emergency against its own data protection rules. Policymakers and experts on data protection and privacy in Brussels warn that tracing and monitoring technology can undermine fundamental rights.

App developers and state governments in the United States are churning out new technologies for tracking the spread of the coronavirus. In the absence of a national privacy law, experts raise concerns about surveillance and scramble to define the boundaries for data collection during the pandemic.