Nature - Protect privacy, equality and fairness in digital contact tracing with these key questions.

On April 21, 2020, the head of Fairfax County Public Schools' (FCPS) IT department resigned after repeatedly fumbling the launch of FCPS’ online learning platform for the 189,000+ students in its jurisdiction. Assistant Superintendent for the Department of Information and Technology Maribeth Luftglass walked away from 21 years with FCPS after the historically prestigious school system failed to successfully implement virtual classrooms and exposed its students and teachers to online harassment a

Open source is doing great, but some open-source groups are getting knocked around by the pandemic. That's where the newly formed FOSS Responders come in.

Objective To study the U.S. public’s attitudes toward surveillance measures aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19, particularly smartphone applications (apps) that supplement traditional contact tracing.  Method We deployed a survey of approximately 2,000 American adults to measure support for nine COVID-19 surveillance measures. We assessed attitudes toward contact tracing apps by manipulating six different attributes of a hypothetical app through a conjoint analysis experiment.  Results A smaller percentage of respondents support the government encouraging everyone to download and use contact tracing apps (42%) compared with other surveillance measures such as enforcing temperature checks (62%), expanding traditional contact tracing (57%), carrying out centralized quarantine (49%), deploying electronic device monitoring (44%), or implementing immunity passes (44%). Despite partisan differences on a range of surveillance measures, support for the government encouraging digital contact tracing is indistinguishable between Democrats (47%) and Republicans (46%), although more Republicans oppose the policy (39%) compared to Democrats (27%). Of the app features we tested in our conjoint analysis experiment, only one had statistically significant effects on the self-reported likelihood of downloading the app: decentralized data architecture increased the likelihood by 5.4 percentage points.  Conclusion Support for public health surveillance policies to curb the spread of COVID-19 is relatively low in the U.S. Contact tracing apps that use decentralized data storage, compared with those that use centralized data storage, are more accepted by the public. While respondents’ support for expanding traditional contact tracing is greater than their support for the government encouraging the public to download and use contact tracing apps, there are smaller partisan differences in support for the latter policy.

An alternative to getting into a technologically mediated academic dishonesty arms race.

A library worker on the dangers librarians face as people in positions of power demand they return to work with little concern for library staff safety.

If the authorities can’t satisfy the public’s desire to know more, others will fill the void with misinformation.

Officials are under pressure to restart the economy, but many states are moving too quickly, researchers say. The costs may be measured in lost lives.

A software engineer from Bangalore was worried about being forced to download Aarogya Setu. So he ripped its guts out.

Authorities say they need to know everyone who was in one nightlife district, even if they don’t want to be found.

By: Becky Yoose What will your public library do when you reopen your doors? Some libraries are exploring phased reopening, starting with curbside or no-contact service outside the physical building. Others are investigating what reopening the physical building to library When libraries become medical screeners: User health data and library privacy

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India is aiming to gradually reopen the economy, while limiting the spread of COVID-19. But its Aarogya Setu contact-tracing app has raised concerns.

They who make the hardware make the rules

I spend all my time fighting with the apps that are supposed to help me.

For the government, it could help to keep coronavirus in check. For users, it raises concerns about privacy and mission creep

As libraries move toward more virtual programming options, it’s important that we don’t overlook patron privacy and security.