We need Big Brother to beat this virus

The Times (UK) ^

[Mount Athos]

Don’t let the civil liberties lobby blind us to the fact that greater state surveillance, including ID cards, is required.

If we are to beat a path out of this pandemic without destroying our economy, overblown concerns about threats to our liberties must be countered by pragmatism. To recover some semblance of normality before a vaccine is found, we must accept the need for the state to access more information about ourselves, our health and our whereabouts — and not waste precious weeks arguing about it.

Look east to see how digital surveillance is an integral part of returning to “normal” life. Hong Kong has mandatory tracking wristbands for those in quarantine. In Taiwan the phone-tracking system is known as an “electronic fence”; those who are meant to be in isolation will be visited by the authorities if their phone is turned off. In South Korea the pooling of data from credit card use, mobile phones and CCTV cameras means that they can detail the movements of an infected citizen down to where they sat in the cinema and which bar they went for a beer in afterwards — and in less than ten minutes can trace and contact the woman who was sitting two stools down. Public support for these measures is high, for the simple reason that they are working.

In the West, proposals nowhere near as strong as these are meeting serious opposition. Edward Snowden, patron saint of the paranoid, has warned the digital remedy for this disease will become a disease itself, remaining long after we have been given the all-clear for coronavirus. “Privacy advocates” across Europe are determined to thwart what they see as unacceptable levels of state intrusion. Last month there was an outcry in Germany over plans to require mobile phone operators to hand over customer data, forcing the government to pull the proposals and go back to the drawing board for a softer, voluntary alternative.

Expect similar tussles in Britain, where civil liberties pressure groups are particularly noisy — as demonstrated a few years ago by their successful rebranding of a perfectly sensible piece of legislation as “the snooper’s charter”. Any moves to use our data for public health purposes is bound to stir up complaints. Indeed, when a new NHS contact-tracing app was announced last week, the former head of MI5 Lord Evans of Weardale said it was a “very intrusive set of proposals” that would be a “real intrusion into people’s private lives”.

Such dark warnings seem strangely out of date in an age when we all endlessly volunteer data about ourselves, unthinkingly click “I agree” to the box that pops up with every website we visit, and send information about our wants and desires to big tech companies, who monetise this information. To be comfortable selling our digital souls to Facebook and co and not to our government — which has a clear and life-saving reason for wanting some basic information — would be nonsensical.

The real problem with the NHS app as proposed is that it doesn’t go far enough.

The government must explore less comfortable terrain, beyond voluntarily downloaded apps.

Immunity passports may be used to prove the status of those who have overcome the virus. Yet wouldn’t these be too vulnerable to forgery or theft? Far better to have an unforgeable, untransferable, unique document. ID cards would also provide a much richer source of data with which to trace the infected.

There will always be high-profile huffing and puffing about such measures, but under that noise is the quiet pragmatism of the British public, who understand that some mild incursions on our privacy may be necessary for the sake of public health. The most recent poll on the subject found that a majority would support even the compulsory carrying of ID cards.

We must now take seriously the example of other nations who have successfully restored some normality to life, and rapidly develop a system of digital surveillance that is comprehensive and useful enough to map and break chains of infection extremely quickly. Arch civil libertarians might not like it, but our health, prosperity and freedom depends on it.

[Billthedrill]

Uh huh. “Relax, citizen. A police state is a safe state. Now just let us go through your pockets. If you’ve done nothing wrong you have nothing to hide.”

[SlipperySlope99]

[BenLurkin]

https://foursquare.com/v/the-fine-line/4acf71fbf964a520b9d320e3

[aMorePerfectUnion]

"While everyone is focused on COVID and arguing that there is no virus or that it is easily treated without vaccination, they are missing the real objective – our descent into a state of tyrannical psychosis that creates the totalitarian rule.

"The totalitarian state has a standard playbook:

First, they need to create fear.

This is then followed by terrorizing the people.

Lastly, they will then seek power by offering solutions that require the surrender of all your rights for security.

This is what Ben Franklin was really referring to.

- Martin Armstrong (at linky)

"While everyone is focused on COVID and arguing that there is no virus or that it is easily treated without vaccination, they are missing the real objective – our descent into a state of tyrannical psychosis that creates the totalitarian rule.

"The totalitarian state has a standard playbook:

First, they need to create fear.

This is then followed by terrorizing the people.

Lastly, they will then seek power by offering solutions that require the surrender of all your rights for security.

This is what Ben Franklin was really referring to.

- Martin Armstrong (at linky)

[LibWhacker]

[BenLurkin]

Her Pub?

[ZOOKER]

[aMorePerfectUnion]

[TLI]

To recover some semblance of normality before a vaccine is found, we must accept the need

OK with four "vaccines" on the ground and a fifth out soon this before a vaccine is found BS tells me there will never be any circumstance that will be enough to have the progs let go of total control of every second of our lives.

It is time to "Just say No."

They will screech and threaten, they will call names and make accusations.

NO.

.

[lizma2]

I thought it was the Bee.

Then I found myself wishing it was the Bee.

[seowulf]

We need Big Brother to beat this virus

If that's the case, I hope the virus wins.

[Travis McGee]

[PghBaldy]

We are not going to “beat” this virus. We never beat Spanish Flu, or the common cold. We have constantly changing respiratory viruses. They always seem to weaken over time. It is not sane to think we can “beat” this virus. We can treat and prevent hopefully in many cases, but it will still be around.

[M Kehoe]

“I hate Nazis.”

5.56mm

[Freedom56v2]

I thot same thing...but not only figuratively...

Her eyes...Are they black?

[Rastus]

VJ is a V alien, so decide on accepting a shot from her at your own risk.

[higgmeister]

Get it and live, then you've beaten it.   How hard is that idiot?

[Savage Beast]

"We need Big Brother to beat this virus"

That's exactly what Big Brother and his henchmen want us to believe.

[cableguymn]

That’s like saying we need more government to beat big government

[proud American in Canada]

Wasn’t this written now, when a vaccine has been developed? Many millions of people have had it.

Also, sounds like something out of the UK.