Human Rights Watchdog Says Governments Using Pandemic To Crack Down On Online Dissent
The Covid-19 pandemic is being used as a Trojan horse to take away our rights and be used to push increased digital surveillance via our smartphones' big tech and Governments. But that’s not all, it also serves a means for other facial recognition technology to be more frequently used. Top10VPN continues to monitor the increase of the police state and decrease our digital and physical rights noting the following figures.
- 120 contact tracing apps are available in 71 countries
- 45 apps now use Google and Apple’s API
- The U.S. has 23 apps, more than any other country in the world
- 19 apps, with 4 million downloads combined, have no privacy policy
Digital Tracking Measures:
- 60 digital tracking measures have been introduced in 38 countries
- Telecom providers have shared user data in 20 countries
Physical Surveillance Initiatives:
- 43 physical surveillance measures have been adopted in 27 countries
- Drones have been used 22 countries to help enforce lockdowns
- Europe introduced more surveillance measures than any other region
Washington-based Freedom House said dozens of countries have cited CV as a means “to justify expanded surveillance powers and the deployment of new technologies that were once seen as too intrusive.” They added that it marks the 10th consecutive annual decline in internet freedom, Barron’s reported.
China was singled out in the report noting, Chinese authorities “combined low- and high-tech tools not only to manage the outbreak of the coronavirus but also to deter internet users from sharing information from independent sources and challenging the official narrative.”
China, which arrested 8 people who were charged with spreading rumors about a virus before the coronavirus was publicly known. Beyond that, China recently highlighted what can be done with such a law by censoring a media outlet Caijing, which is one of the most reputable outlets in the country. In that article, the authors claimed that China significantly underreported both cases and deaths, especially among the elderly. (archive) (translation)
