Edward Snowden says COVID-19 suits power

The pandemic from coronavirus It has generated a technological effect necessary for some and very dangerous for another group, since several governments such as China and South Korea took advantage of their digital tools such as surveillance cameras, facial recognition, temperature measurement and GPS monitoring applications to some extent. In this way, having the population under control in times of crisis.

Many researchers point out that while this measure intrudes deep into individual liberties, it is useful in making detections and plotting cases.

However, for former CIA contractor Edward Snowden, this is the start of a new era of surveillance, where the most favored will be the powerful.

“When we see approved emergency measures, particularly today, they tend to be difficult,” Snowden said in an interview with the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival.

On the occasion, the technology consultant stated that “The emergency tends to expand. Then the authorities feel comfortable with a new power. They begin to like it.”

One of the biggest de facto fears of activists like Snowden or the imprisoned Julian Assange, is that these tools remain in the hands of governments, after the pandemic, use this surveillance system to decrease dissent and political opponents.

Edward Snowden made another reflection on this and said that “they (governments) already know what you are seeing on the Internet. They already know where their phone is moving. Now they know what their heart rate is, what their pulse is. What happens when they start mixing them and applying artificial intelligence to them? “

Snowden added that the coronavirus It will be controlled thanks to scientific innovation and the creation of a vaccine, but this permanent monitoring system for the inhabitants of a country could be permanent.

“The consequences of the measures we are presenting today will be permanent. That is why the technology we implement now must be proportional to each phase of the outbreak. The openness of governments and consultation with the public will ensure that it is within the rule of law and It preserves our basic human rights. Draconian measures can be tolerable if they help us overcome the pandemic. But we must also think about the world we want to live in once the coronavirus is contained, “he said.

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