Is it an effect of the shock strategy? In the midst of a health disaster, new security standards that undermine liberties are essential. Over 80% of French people are in favor of digital tracking of people with Covid-19. This is the teaching of a survey carried out on March 26 and 27 by the British University of Oxford. Have the citizens of the country of human rights surrendered to the virus? Are they ready to sacrifice their freedom for their security?

"This is the first lesson from this crisis on which we must reflect deeply," explains Antoine Garapon, magistrate and secretary general of the Institute of Higher Studies on Justice (IHEJ) located in Paris. "Obviously, there is a very poor perception among our fellow citizens of the risks induced by global cybersurveillance." Digital tracing via the geolocation of mobile phones has been developed by many countries in a hurry and in fear.

A late reflection on the events

Digital tools have been ready for a long time. Not thinking about their uses in an exceptional health context. Even in the West, there has been no consultation with NGOs, lawyers specializing in fundamental freedoms and civil society. In France, the National Consultative Ethics Committee - which brings together personalities from the academic world, businesses and civil society - recognizes a phase of "amazement and withdrawal" in the face of the spread of the disease, a period which did not encourage debate. As a result, from China to Europe via Africa, billions of people find themselves in the crosshairs of the Covid-19 digital trackers.

On behalf of a hundred NGOs, Amnesty International expressed its dismay on April 8, before the construction of a Big Brother health facility. "The Covid-19 pandemic cannot be used as an excuse to deprive privacy rights of their substance." In fact, this health crisis reveals many others: crisis of confidence in the political class, in new technologies, in science ... "The Covid is upsetting our landscape, adds Antoine Garapon, we have to do with this new deal while keeping our compasses to protect our freedoms. " And to point out the main threat: the control of private actors over our personal data. "We must not delude ourselves, he warns, the states do not have the means to set up these surveillance technologies. Ultimately, the companies that fulfill this mission will want to be paid and will demand in exchange for having the data. "

Is this the risk with the proposal put forward on April 10 by Apple and Google, namely to make available to States a common tool for tracking the sick? This collaboration between the two web giants is unprecedented enough to worry. "It would be political suicide and a terrible violation of popular sovereignty, said Frans Imbert-Vier, CEO of Ubcom, a company specializing in the protection of digital secrets. No American company can promise confidentiality."

Franck Leroy, specialist in these questions, author of two books on surveillance, has the same fears. "Surveillance is a huge strategic and geopolitical market. There is a lot of money at stake. Companies in this sector are taking advantage of the health crisis to sell their technologies and I doubt they will be satisfied with this drama to amortize their investments . "

Exceptional laws that could pass into ordinary law?

Denis Salas also judges the situation worrying. Magistrate and essayist, he fears a security escalation. The next step could resemble what we have known lately with the emergency laws on terrorism: the incorporation into ordinary law of the exceptional measures taken by the government to contain and monitor the population. "Today, we let states intrude on our freedoms without reacting because we must defend the right to life," he explains. However, this right must not be hegemonic. A democracy cannot live exclusively in a State of health even if the urgency of the moment compels us to do so. Democracy must remain what it is: the defense of the plurality of rights, including the right to move freely and protect one's privacy. "

Denis Salas is surprised that the highest French court, the Constitutional Court, has paused, postponing after June 30, 2020 the examination of the measures taken by the government during the state of health emergency. "It is a bad sign and a bad blow to fundamental rights as if they had to be placed offside in a state of health emergency, says Denis Salas. However, we must imagine together a way out of the crisis that did not not rely on the models of dictatorial or authoritarian states like China or South Korea. "

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