China, Israel, the United States and Iran want to monitor their citizens on the grounds that it will reduce the spread of the corona virus.
As the corona virus spreads throughout the world, the use of mass surveillance also increases, which impairs personal privacy. It may come as no great surprise that China has already chosen from day one to monitor citizens who became ill in covid-19, but in recent weeks, country after country has chosen to take similar measures.
For example, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has commissioned security service Shin Bet to find out where infected people have been and who they have been in contact with.To succeed with the task, digital tools that have previously been used to keep track of suspected terrorists will be used, The Register reports.
In the United States, the government has requested site data from Google and Facebook to track the spread of infection, while Iran has chosen to keep track of all citizens who have downloaded an app used to determine whether or not covid-19 was affected.
Many critics now worry that mass surveillance is here to stop, as politicians are finding it difficult to resist the increasingly loud demands on tougher approaches from viruses to suspected criminals.
