Coronavirus Demands a Privacy Law

Silicon Valley’s role in contact tracing and social-distancing enforcement has Americans worried.

Reopening the economy and returning to “normal life” in the absence of a Covid-19 vaccine may be possible, we are told, with a combination of widespread testing and contact tracing. But these solutions will depend heavily on technology, and Silicon Valley doesn’t have the best record when it comes to protecting consumer privacy.

Federal legislation to protect health data has made little progress. Will that change in the Covid-19 era?

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, health data privacy wasn’t exactly a hot topic on Capitol Hill. By and large, lawmakers stuck to scolding tech giants like Google for getting their hands on patient data gathered by hospitals and smartphone apps.

COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps Spotlight Privacy, Security Rights
As tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Apple move to craft the APIs behind COVID-19 contact tracing apps, privacy advocates rush to ensure the protection of privacy and cybersecurity rights.

SAFEGUARDING TRUST

ADVANCING HEALTHCARE