Between Surveillance and Technological Solutionism: A Critique of Privacy-Preserving Apps for COVID-19 Contact-Tracing

Mann, M., Mitchell, P., & Foth, M. (2022). Between surveillance and technological solutionism: A critique of privacy-preserving apps for COVID-19 contact-tracing. New Media and Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221109800

19 Pages Posted: 28 Oct 2020 Last revised: 28 Jul 2022

See all articles by Monique Mann

Monique Mann

Queensland University of Technology - Faculty of Law

Peta Mitchell

Queensland University of Technology - Digital Media Research Centre

Marcus Foth

Queensland University of Technology (QUT)

Date Written: June 7, 2022

Abstract

In this article, we examine the rise of contact-tracing apps during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic as a new form of technological solutionism – a technological or techno-social fix that can be deployed at national scale in response to an urgent, supranational problem. A dystopian view saw the rapid development and proliferation of COVID-19 contact-tracing apps as a vanguard technology for surveillance. Expediently deployed as a technological fix to the pandemic, contact-tracing was seen to threaten to transform a state of emergency into a state of exception, under which accepted or constitutional laws and norms might be suspended. Here, we extend early critiques of the contact-tracing app as a ‘technofix’ to argue the growing intervention of global technology corporations in digital governance and affairs of national sovereignty throughout the COVID-19 pandemic represents a new frontier of state–industrial surveillance that exploits people’s pre-investment in and dependence on technology corporations. We exemplify this with the ‘technofix’ of the Google–Apple Exposure Notification (GAEN) framework and critically examine the notion of a decentralised and privacy-preserving Bluetooth-based contact-tracing framework proposed by global technology corporations that may threaten state sovereignty when determining public health responses to current or future crises.

Keywords: Bluetooth surveillance; contact-tracing; coronavirus; COVID-19; data sovereignty; disaster capitalism; exposure notification; surveillance capitalism; technological solutionism; technological sovereignty; technology corporations

Suggested Citation

Mann, Monique and Mitchell, Peta and Foth, Marcus, Between Surveillance and Technological Solutionism: A Critique of Privacy-Preserving Apps for COVID-19 Contact-Tracing (June 7, 2022). Mann, M., Mitchell, P., & Foth, M. (2022). Between surveillance and technological solutionism: A critique of privacy-preserving apps for COVID-19 contact-tracing. New Media and Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221109800, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3717370 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3717370

Monique Mann

Queensland University of Technology - Faculty of Law ( email )

Level 4, C Block Gardens Point
2 George St
Brisbane, QLD 4000
Australia

Peta Mitchell

Queensland University of Technology - Digital Media Research Centre ( email )

Creative Industries Precinct
Musk Avenue
Kelvin Grove, Queensland 4059
Australia

HOME PAGE: http://research.qut.edu.au/dmrc/people/peta-mitchell/

Marcus Foth (Contact Author)

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) ( email )

2 George Street
Brisbane, Queensland 4000
Australia

HOME PAGE: http://qut.design

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