I’ve been sharing a lot lately the many ways government at every level has been exploiting coronavirus hysteria to destroy liberty in order to pave the way for a more socialistic, more tyrannical government.
One of my recent articles documenting this threat to our God-given rights revealed how Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner — who was put in charge of Ivanka’s daddy’s coronavirus task force — began making plans for a what is being called a Patriot Act for healthcare to fight COVID-19.
Though we didn’t know the details about what this would look like at the time, we’ve known for a long time about the federal government’s liberty-killing interest in possessing the ability to glean data from tech giants like Google and Facebook, and its desire to create a special app to monitor people via their cell phones.
However, thanks to provisions included in the $2.2 trillion stimulus earmarking money to launch a “surveillance and data collection” system to track how coronavirus is spread along with Kushner’s “request” for a Patriot Act for healthcare, the details of what things will look like are coming into focus. And just like the original PATRIOT Act created by Washington post-9/11, it’s not looking too good for liberty.
Apple and Google just announced they will be joining forces to build a so-called “opt-in” contact tracking tool using Bluetooth technology. Working in partnership with the feds, the tool will help public officials — aka the government — track the spread of coronavirus spy on Americans 24/7.
The tool will use your smart phone to log everyone you come in close contact with and will exchange contact information with them automatically — even people not using the app — and anonymously. If one of your contacts reports COVID-19 symptoms to the health authorities, you will get a notification to take action.
The first phase of the rollout of this tool takes place in May and requires users to download an app created by the government and to opt-in to participate. The second phase will update Apple and Android operating systems so that an app will be unnecessary. This phase will require users to opt-out if they don’t want the tracking tool on their device.
The “success” of this tracking system will require a large participation rate which puts the rights of EVERYONE in danger, as we learn from a similar system being launched in the U.K. where, according to the NHS, 60% of the adult population needs to participate for the plan to work.
A participation rate that high would give the government an unprecedented level of surveillance power. And as far as privacy rights are concerned, experts across the pond believe they should be secondary to government’s need to track everyone.
“In emergency situations, there are all sorts of things that are allowable that wouldn’t be otherwise and that seems appropriate. The most important thing is there’s public trust and confidence and clarity of what’s happening.”
~ Prof Michael Parker, director of the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities at the University of Oxford
“I believe that if we put the proper protocols of responsible innovation in place – protocols which ensure that these technologies are democratically governed, based on individual and community consent, proportional, and constrained with sunset provisions – a higher level of intrusiveness would be more widely acceptable.”
~ David Leslie, ethicist at the Alan Turing Institute
Besides the obvious tyrannical implications of creating a Patriot Act for healthcare, how long will it be before voluntary participation becomes mandatory and spying on everyone becomes the new norm?
Based on the history of abuse from the first PATRIOT Act, not long at all.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable and promotes conservative principles over political parties.
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