Sadly not holding my breath for this to happen in America. After they tracked those spring breaker cell phones with ease, I’m afraid human rights are already being trampled.
In hindsight, cellphone data should have augmented contact tracing rather than just sitting on the sidelines and drawing maps a week later. In my opinion there is a time and place to wield technological power when there is a collective need. Ethicists can argue where the line is drawn but an existential threat to 2% of the infected seems sufficient, especially given how fast a pandemic spreads.
This kind of opinion is predicated on a utilitarian ethical viewpoint. I.e., it's okay to do wrong to a small number of people if it benefits the overwhelming majority of people.
There are plenty of other ethical approaches, many of which would say that the upholding of certain rights is more important than any benefits gained from violating them.
Your edit is worth debating, though I doubt there's an easy way to settle the argument between ethical concerns and the efficacy of tracking at phone cell granularity. Most of what I've read in that regard didn't really indicate that particular technological capability makes more sense than an overall lockdown since it can hardly be called targeted.
For further context: The example you replied to references this data in the hands of advertisers, with extremely questionable claims about their pseudo anonymization. That just made your comment before the edit less sensible. I believe such a debate might make sense at the level of a government agency, private entities exchanging that data is just a ridiculous idea.
If everything else in American politics and government execution worked smoothly and some extra cell phone tracking could have unwrinkled the last wrinkles, I'd maybe give your argument consideration.
As it currently stands, getting cell phone data would be like polishing the door knobs while your basement is flooded. There are bigger fish to fry, lower fruits to pick etc etc.
chapium|5 years ago
Edit: I should flesh this out a bit further.
In hindsight, cellphone data should have augmented contact tracing rather than just sitting on the sidelines and drawing maps a week later. In my opinion there is a time and place to wield technological power when there is a collective need. Ethicists can argue where the line is drawn but an existential threat to 2% of the infected seems sufficient, especially given how fast a pandemic spreads.
keiferski|5 years ago
There are plenty of other ethical approaches, many of which would say that the upholding of certain rights is more important than any benefits gained from violating them.
tastroder|5 years ago
For further context: The example you replied to references this data in the hands of advertisers, with extremely questionable claims about their pseudo anonymization. That just made your comment before the edit less sensible. I believe such a debate might make sense at the level of a government agency, private entities exchanging that data is just a ridiculous idea.
jacobush|5 years ago
As it currently stands, getting cell phone data would be like polishing the door knobs while your basement is flooded. There are bigger fish to fry, lower fruits to pick etc etc.