Tag: coronavirus
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‘Normal’ Was Actually Not Great for a Lot of People
Written by Alice Wong on Esquire.
“In this critical time, when scarcity is a reality, you see the hierarchy. Certain groups are valued over others. This is the world that so many disabled and chronically ill people already live in. Our lives are still seen as expendable. Now the magnitude is much greater.”
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“My hope for coming out of this pandemic is that we don’t return to the status quo. Many don’t realize that “normal” was actually not great for a lot of people. Just because all of the nondisabled people go back to work—or to Burning Man, or to Coachella—that doesn’t mean we should stop thinking about accessibility.”
Read ‘‘Normal’ Was Actually Not Great for a Lot of People’ on the Esquire site.
Tagged with: accessibility, disability, coronavirus.
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Humans are not the virus: don’t be an eco-fascist
Written by Sherronda J. Brown on gal-dem.
“Eco-fascist rhetoric works to obscure the responsibility of white colonialism and its long history of destruction, as well as imperialist presences in predominantly black and brown countries”
Read ‘Humans are not the virus: don’t be an eco-fascist’ on the gal-dem site.
Tagged with: ecofacism, coronavirus, discrimination.
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Tracking everyone’s whereabouts won’t stop COVID-19
Written by Albert Fox Cahn and Alyssa Domino on Fast Company.
“Rather than simply accepting tracking with open arms, Americans should be wary of geeks bearing gifts. Today’s startups could do more than squander venture capital dollars—their misguided COVID-19 surveillance measures may cost lives and undermine our democracy.
… This points to one of the most fundamental concerns in any new health surveillance tool: Who else gets the data? Even if a tool is shown to be effective, even if it’s deployable at scale, how else might the data be used by government agencies?”
Read ‘Tracking everyone’s whereabouts won’t stop COVID-19’ on the Fast Company site.
Tagged with: coronavirus, mass surveillance, Silicon Valley.
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Panic, Pandemic, and the Body Politic
Written by Laurie Penny on Wired.
“The diseases that are most successful in the coming century will, as always, be the diseases that exploit our major failure modes and popular delusions.
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If you design a world economy that rewards self-interest and makes altruism unaffordable, it’s unsurprising that some people start acting like they’re in the prisoner’s dilemma.”
Read ‘Panic, Pandemic, and the Body Politic’ on the Wired site.
Tagged with: coronavirus, society, panic.
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Coronavirus, facial recognition, and the future of privacy
Written by Khari Johnson on Venturebeat.
“If quarantines are ineffective or improperly carried out, millions of people could die, according to some estimates, but that doesn’t mean we can throw civil liberties out the window.
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Aside from the spread of COVID-19, the other prevailing story this week was a rush of revelations about companies peddling AI-powered surveillance technology to businesses, governments, and law enforcement agencies.
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Global economies are bracing for recession, and no one knows exactly how the spread of COVID-19 will impact global supply chains, public events, travel, and other industries. And even as we’re actively discussing whether a company like Clearview AI will mean the end of privacy, COVID-19 could easily be used as an excuse to spread mass surveillance.
This is not intended to be alarmist, but it’s important to keep an eye on mission creep in this space.”
Read ‘Coronavirus, facial recognition, and the future of privacy’ on the Venturebeat site.
Tagged with: coronavirus, facial recognition, mass surveillance.