Technology, Health, and Human Rights: A Cautionary Tale for the Post-Pandemic World.
Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: Technology is widely known for moving fast and breaking things, to paraphrase Mark Zuckerberg. Indeed, technology is fast moving into each and every aspect of our life, especially our health and well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how technology can and should play an important role in helping stop the spread of the disease, including by disseminating public health messages and increasing access to health care (for instance, through virtual consultations). However, the pandemic has also demonstrated how certain governments—in the name of combatting the disease—have rushed to expand their use of surveillance technologies to track individuals and even entire populations. Without human rights safeguards and meaningful public consultation, digital health technologies threaten privacy, freedom of expression, and freedom of association, thus violating rights and degrading trust, which also undermines the effectiveness of such technologies. At Amnesty Tech (a program of Amnesty International), we are taking stock of all that is broken in the technology and health and human rights nexus, while trying to ensure that critical human rights safeguards are put in place.
Source: Europe PMC (PubMed Central)
Author: Rajat Khosla
Institution: Amnesty International
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3118610160