Q: Several countries are using technology to track citizens, storing DNA to fight the virus. Are we entering a new era of digital surveillance, and what does this mean for privacy?
A: There are now companies developing technology which make it possible for the employer ... to look at what's on your computer screen and to check your keystrokes and if you get up and walk away for a minute, they'll send you a warning.
That's being installed right now.... It's not the future.
The so-called Internet of Things is coming along. It's convenient. It means if you're driving home you can turn on the stove -- but it also means that that information is going to Google and Facebook, to the government, the American government, the French government, it's an enormous amount of potential control ,surveillance and invasion. But this has happened. It's not the future.
If we allow the huge tech companies, the state, to control our life that's what will happen. They'll turn it into something like China, where you have social credit systems and in some cities you get a certain amount of credits, there's face recognition technology all over the place and everything you do gets monitored.
If you cross the street in the wrong place, you can ... lose some credits, and so on.
It's not inevitable, just like global warming, that it's going to happen -- unless people stop it.
Q: Could it be justified to halt the virus' spread?
A. It might be -- during the period of threat. There's controls needed during wartime, you have rationing. But it doesn't have to be permanent.... 'Yes, we'll let you have this authority now, but it can be revoked at any time.'"
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