Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1240944
9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 APRIL 2020 COVID app dictators' best friend, Greens say MATTHEW AGIUS ALTERNATTIVA Demokra- tika, Malta's Green party, has come out against a proposed contact-tracing app – mooted by the government as a measure to stop the spread of COVID-19 – describing it as "every totalitari- an regime's wet dream". "The coronavirus pandemic should not be used as an excuse to introduce invasive technol- ogies and to force the entire population of Malta and Gozo to be monitored continuously through their mobile devic- es," Ralph Cassar, AD secre- tary-general said. "It is worrying that in the space of barely a month, in par- liament, on some media outlets and now during an official PN press conference, entrepreneur MP Ivan Bartolo has been ped- dling mass surveillance tech- nology and wearable geoloca- tion devices on the pretext that it will contain the coronavirus pandemic. He is making the as- sumption that what is possible through technology is inher- ently right. It is not." Arguing that it was not right to create panic and paranoia by introducing such an app, Cas- sar added that it was "not right to collect massive amounts of data about people's wherea- bouts, who they hang out with and their daily routine." There were other ways to collect the information, he said, which were based on trust-building, and on provid- ing accessible public services to tackle crises. "Why should we trust that the data collected is used respon- sibly? Why should people be made to wear, buy or use tech- nological devices provided by the state? What guarantees are there such that such blanket surveillance will not become a new normal and used for oth- er purposes? Who will own people's personal data?" Cassar asked. People should be trusted and helped to do the right thing rather than forced into techno- logical servitude, said the party in a statement on Saturday. Bartolo's and the PN's pro- posals were "every totalitarian regime's wet dream," Cassar said. As it was clear that in Mal- ta, there already was a spirit of cooperation on the part of the public to control the pan- demic, this meant that the in- troduction of such measures were unnecessary, he went on, predicting that such measures would "breach the relation- ship of trust between health authorities and the public and may have long lasting reper- cussions." Malta is a signatory to the Council of Europe's 1981 Da- ta Protection Treaty (Conven- tion 108) which would require that the introduction of con- tact tracing technology only be done if specifically provided for by law and if it meets strict tests, such as those of necessity and proportionality in a demo- cratic society. UN Speical Rapporteur on privacy, Prof. Joseph Cannataci of the University of Malta, has asked if such an app is neces- sary. "Is a contact-tracing app an absolutely necessary 'must have' to defeat COVID-19? If it is just 'nice to have' then it does not meet strict European standards in privacy and data protection," he told MaltaTo- day last week. Cannataci also questions, more importantly, whether governments would even think of mothballing contact-trac- ing technologies after COV- ID-19. Or would they yield to the temptation to use them to monitor and control the pop- ulation, long after any health pandemic is over? "It's the control-freak's dream scenario and potentially a hu- man rights nightmare," Can- nataci stressed, warning that "it can make a totalitarian rul- er's dream of absolute control come true". "Extreme vigilance and care- ful scrutiny are required," he added. NEWS