Do Contact Tracing Apps Pit Privacy Against The Public Good?

"Jennifer King, who serves as Director of Consumer Privacy for Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, noted that such terms of service often are “very non-transparent” and could make it difficult for users to make an informed choice about whether to opt in to contact tracing.

“My concern is that … even if [the apps are launched] by public health agencies,” King said, “we’ll see a process that looks like what we already see on the consumer side of things, where you get a very legalistic privacy policy that doesn’t do a good job of trying to explain to you in plain English what you’re engaging in, what you’re participating in, and for how long your data might be used.”"

Date published: 
May 15, 2020
Focus Area: 
People: