Ethical Surveillance in Vaccine Passports

Abstract

This Essay explores the interrelated privacy and equality risks of deploying surveillance technology used in COVID-19 vaccine passports. The type of vaccine passport that governments implement has significant human rights ramifications. This Essay discusses how different vaccine passport designs can curb or exacerbate risks, providing a roadmap to guide policymakers in their app selection to mitigate unintended consequences. Vaccine passports should work on a decentralized system and use the least invasive data possible. Further, vaccine passports should be based solely on government vaccine data, should be implemented only in places where vaccines are widely available for free, should track location only when they are scanned, and should provide a non-digital option. Governments should have clear sunset clauses for the app and collected data.

Keywords: vaccine passports, immunity passports, COVID-19, AI ethics, surveillance, inequality, human rights