Andrew Yang: Reopen Economy
on Monday, May 4, 2020
Andrew Yang Money Quote saying that a tracking app would be required to allow us to open the economy so that we could see if we’ve come into close contact with anyone carrying the coronavirus and that destroys privacy. Andrew Yang said:
“This is a very big problem and issue. If you’re going to reopen any part of the economy and you’re going to do it you would need to have some robust tech tracing and tracking tools. And those things run afoul of what most of us regard as our privacy rights” — Andrew Yang
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In this quote, Andrew Yang seems to be acknowledging the tension between public health needs during the pandemic and civil liberties concerns regarding digital contact tracing tools.
By stating that reopening the economy “would need to have some robust tech tracing and tracking tools” but that “those things run afoul of what most of us regard as our privacy rights”, Yang implies that effective test and trace programs to control virus spread conflict with Americans’ expectations of privacy.
The quote conveys Yang’s perspective that while contact tracing applications may be crucial to allow safe reopening, many people are uncomfortable with the level of personal data collection such systems could entail based on traditional notions of privacy.
Overall, Yang appears to be objectively framing the complex debate around balancing epidemiological requirements with citizens’ reasonable wariness of extensive government or corporate monitoring of individuals’ daily lives, movements and interactions without explicit consent or oversight protections. Yang’s comment highlights the difficult trade-offs policymakers and technologists face in designing digital disease surveillance.
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