privacy

As contact-tracing apps prove less useful than hoped in many countries, other digital tools such as wearable fitness trackers are gaining in popularity for detecting or tracing coronavirus infection. But a reliance on such technologies comes with big questions about effectiveness and privacy.

The pandemic has increased calls for a national ID system to improve access to relief funds. Experts say that the proposed plan may not work and may put data security and privacy at risk.

From legal challenges to delays, leaks and policy reversals, the UK has stumbled in its tech response to the pandemic. A full assessment of what happened will take time, but the record thus far already offers lessons for the future.

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.