The Tech Industry’s Role in Combating COVID-19: Changing Priorities in a Changing Environment
The announcement that tech rivals Apple and Google have teamed up to develop contact tracing apps demonstrates the increasing urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe. The collaboration increases the accessibility of smartphones for governments to develop contact tracing apps, most of which involve Bluetooth technology and location tracking to identify links between clusters of COVID-19 patients. Yet while these companies purport to prioritise the addressing of security concerns, its efficacy in doing so remains to be seen. And this is but one issue plaguing the technology industry in the face of an unprecedented pandemic. The incentives for - as well as the consequences of - solving these problems, calls for scrutiny.
OK Zoomer
The recent security concerns that Zoom, a popular video-calling application, has been inundated with an industry-wide issue: privacy is, at its core, a difficult issue to balance with accessibility. Touted for its reliability and ease of use, the program is one of the key choices for teleconferencing in both professional and private manners. Yet, security vulnerabilities have led both corporations and countries alike to abandon the software. Following breaches of privacy in which obscene images were exposed to minors, Singapore’s Ministry of Education recently suspended usage of Zoom in its Home-Based Learning initiative, enacted to disrupt potential outbreak of the pandemic in its youth communities. Earlier this month, New York’s Attorney General, Letitia James, also requested Zoom’s outline of measures taken to combat security vulnerabilities in view of the massive influx of users since the pandemic began.
The company’s subsequent acknowledgment that security flaws will have to be dealt with means that its main draws – ease of usage and quality, amongst others – will be compromised, turning away potential users. End-to-end encryption lowers call quality owing to encryption and decryption introducing lag and latency issues, reports Satya Gupta, Chief Technology Officer of web security company Virsec. Furthermore, additional steps taken to strengthen security, such as 2-factor authentication and controls on access to calls, makes entering a conference less convenient for participants, undermining another one of the main draws of the software. Zoom, and potential competitors looking to cash in on the teleconferencing boom, will then have to balance security and accessibility. Nevertheless, as short-sighted creatures of habit, convincing consumers to willingly inconvenience themselves for security may prove difficult.
Fake News, Real Danger
Another issue that the industry has to contend with is the increasing prevalence of fake news. The spread of misinformation is not new; Facebook users have had to contend with targeted advertisements of dubious origins and unverifiable sources since its inception in the early 2000s. The difference now is that misinformation leads to tangible threats and dangers against the public and national infrastructure. At least one death has been attributed to President Trump’s dangerous endorsement of hydroxychloroquine as a cure to COVID-19. A couple in Phoenix, Arizona consumed a variant of the drug in an attempt to stay healthy, leading to the man’s death and the woman’s admission into critical care. A subsequent interview revealed that the couple learned of the connection between the chemical and the virus after watching one of Trump’s news conferences addressing the drug. Closer to home, tabloids, and online communities have perpetuated the rumour that recently-installed 5G service towers are to blame for the propagation of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to multiple arson attacks on the towers and crippling vital communication services in nearby communities. At least one of the towers in Birmingham, operated by EE, was not 5G-capable but was still targeted for arson. And while one of the Facebook communities exhorting its members to burn down these towers was removed shortly, many others continue to propagate false and dangerous information detrimental to Britain’s national security. Despite the tech industry’s efforts to stem its flow, fake news and misinformation continue to spread like wildfire, causing untold damage in today’s politically-charged and fear-driven environment.
This is not to say that all efforts to quell the spread of misinformation have been in vain so far. A quick Google search about coronavirus statistics brings up government-sanctioned statistics and fact-checking NGOs. Instagram directs its US-based users to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention website, while UK users are guided to the NHS site for updates on the pandemic in their respective countries. And the Guardian reports that the US-based tech industry, often reluctant to betray their apolitical and libertarian nature, are competing with each other to provide accurate, verified information to the masses. While these attempts to stem the tide of misinformation should be lauded, experts fear that it may be too little, too late. Professor Carl Bergstrom, from the University of Washington, likens these efforts to “praising Philip Morris for putting filters on cigarettes”.
What are you doing, Big Brother?
The most worrying possibility, perhaps, could happen not during the pandemic, but instead in its aftermath. With the technology for location tracking put in place under the guise of maintaining contact tracing, a backdoor for unnecessary government surveillance may remain long after the effects of the pandemic die down. Edward Snowden, the American whistleblower who exposed the National Security Agency’s extensive spying operation in 2013, warned of the potential uses that governments around the world could have for health and location data collected during this period. And while Business Insider reports no attempts to collect health data from wearables by states yet, a slew of surveillance technologies, ranging from Bluetooth-enabling applications on smartphones to location data harvested from telecom companies collaborating with governments, have been deployed rapidly in response to the urgency of the pandemic. One need only look to Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, to understand the dangers of extensive surveillance and control – the suppressing of initial medical warnings about the pandemic and a no-nonsense approach to critics of the handling of the pandemic speak for themselves.
Access Now, a non-profit organisation committed to the safeguard of digital rights, warns that government abuse of data collection is not a novel concept. The aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the States saw the implementation of the Patriot Act, which critics decried as an unnecessary encroachment on public privacy and whose power was subsequently curtailed by Congress following Snowden’s leak regarding the extent of NSA spying. China also tightened security in the wake of the 2008 Olympics, and one need only think of the aftermath of Tiananmen Square to imagine the effects of excessive surveillance and control. To that end, the importance of heightened security, like end-to-end encryption for communication channels, cannot be overstated; the risk of harvested data being repurposed for political or commercial purposes is too high. Ron Deibert, head of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, warns of a lack of “sunset clauses” in these measures, where rollbacks of heightened surveillance measures post-pandemic are not guaranteed. As demonstrated, the vested interest that governments have in the implementation of heightened security measures puts the general public at risk of more than just contracting COVID-19. And as the leaders in their respective fields, the heads of the tech industry have a responsibility to ensure accountability where governments cannot or will not.
Staying Afloat
These are just some of the priorities that the tech industry has to juggle while navigating the rapidly-changing global pandemic. Yet cynics point, rightfully, to shareholder accountability remaining a key motivating factor for maintaining a positive public image in times of crises. With the virus impacting its Chinese origins hard, supply chains for a large majority of firms like Apple and Amazon have been disrupted. Apple, for example, forecasts a 10% drop in iPhone shipments this quarter, owing to Foxconn’s factories shutting down production. The tech industry thus has a vested interest in ensuring that business remains as usual and the virus contained. But as is evidenced by the increase in demand for online teleconferencing services, both during and beyond the pandemic period, there is a strong incentive for the tech industry to adapt to the changing needs and wants of the public as opposed to maintaining pre-pandemic processes. Perhaps this necessitates a realignment or at least a reassessment of its priorities in the years to come. If rivals like Apple and Google can put aside their differences to do their part in combatting the pandemic, anything is possible.
by Ronald Poh