COVID-19 far more widespread in Indonesia than official data show – studies
Jakarta, Indonesia Reuters COVID-19 is many times more prevalent in Indonesia than shown by official figures in the world’s fourth most populous country, authors of two new studies told Reuters. The country of 270 million has recorded 1.83 million positive cases, but epidemiologists have long believed the true scale of the spread has been obscured […]
Tech’s long COVID-19: What privacy battles will define 2021?
Thomson Reuters Foundation The coronavirus pandemic added a new layer to the ever-developing debate around privacy and technology in 2020, as governments and companies turned to tools like contract tracing apps and employee monitoring software. As the year comes to an end, the Thomson Reuters Foundation asked privacy experts around the world what issues will […]
Are they any use? With Europe’s black-box coronavirus apps it’s hard to tell
Dublin, Ireland/Berlin, Germany Reuters Europe’s experiment in using technology to fight coronavirus has achieved some early successes: millions of people have downloaded smartphone tracker apps and hundreds have uploaded the results of positive COVID-19 tests. Yet most European countries so far lack solid evidence that their apps – which identify close contacts via Bluetooth connections […]
“No excuse” for countries that fail in contact tracing, WHO’s Tedros says
Geneva, Switzerland Reuters Tracing contacts of people with coronavirus infections is the most important step in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, and countries that are failing to do so have no excuse, the World Health Organization chief said on Monday. “Although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up,” Tedros Adhanom […]
US senator says Apple, Google need to show contact tracing will not violate privacy
Washington, DC Reuters Smartphone software makers Alphabet’s Google and Apple will have to convince the public that any contact tracing technology to track who has been exposed to the new coronavirus will not lead to a violation of their privacy, Senator Richard Blumenthal said on Wednesday. “Apple and Google have a lot of work to […]