Governments around the world are increasingly using location data and other digital technologies to monitor the movements of their citizens.

In the European Union, privacy must be respected in line with the General Data Protection Regulation. That means mobile operators have been sharing location data with the authorities, although that data must be anonymous and aggregated.

In Italy, for instance, a country hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, the location data has helped the government observe the movement of people in areas that have been put on lockdown. According to an article in The Guardian last week, as many as 40,000 people were charged for flouting the lockdown.

Outside of Europe, China has taken more drastic measures, asking its people to download an app that will tell them if they should be in isolation, or at least tell them where they can go. Reports later surfaced that the information has been shared with police.

In South Korea, citizens have complained that the tracking data has been too invasive. The public has been receiving text messages from the government on where coronavirus carriers have been and what they have been doing.

Names are not given, but the people are given a number, and their age and gender is also made available to the public. Some of those diagnosed were later named and shamed after being found out by the public. As one person told The Guardian, “I thought I only had to protect my health, but now I think there are other things more scary than the coronavirus.”

Top10VPN has released an Index of various kinds of tracking technologies, some of which it said were “proportionate, necessary and legitimate,” although it added that “others have been rushed through legislative bodies and implemented without adequate scrutiny.”

That Index reveals that 15 countries are using some form of digital tracking measures, with four countries employing digital surveillance. Some of the measures have been called “mass violations of digital rights.”

U.S. officials have reportedly talked with tech companies, including Google LLC and Facebook Inc., regarding developing tracking apps, although Facebook has since denied that. Soon after those reports, several members of Congress wrote a letter to President Trump asking that privacy rights of Americans be protected.

Photo: Patrice CALATAYU/Flickr