Civil Liberties Group Raises Privacy Concerns About COVID-19 Data Tracking

Policymakers should focus on preserving privacy and liberty when addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, while remembering lessons from the 9/11 attacks, Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board Chair Adam Klein and member Ed Felten wrote. The question isn’t whether new programs are needed, but how to implement them, they wrote Saturday for Politico. They noted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s $500 million COVID-19 surveillance and data collection system, and the government’s analysis of cellphone geolocation data via service providers to track and predict the disease’s impact.