Even if you focus on pure tech problems, startups seems to be failing us in the US.
Other countries have scaled out thermal imaging for fever detection, face tracking for contact tracing, and have mobile apps that can warn people where a previous infected patient have visited before. I have yet to see any of that here.
But take a look at the Patriot Act. Much of it expired, but has been reauthorized time and time again -- with support from both parties, both Obama and Trump.
Yeah, that's tricky; people tend to adjust to things and they become the 'status quo'. I guess it's partially a matter of electing better politicians down the line.
attempting to do face tracking for contact tracing in the US would likely lead to an uproar from privacy advocates. there are likely many companies (amazon, facebook, google) that have the tech to accomplish it (several years ago).
It's definitely not an unpopular opinion, especially on HN. Pre-corona I was probably a crazier privacy nut than most so I completely understand where you're coming from.
But right now our privacy is not worth more than our parents' and grandparents' lives. You ought to re-run your moral calculations with the current state of the world in mind. There are literally millions of lives at stake.
Actually let me expand upon that. First with an annecdote....
I Was at RSA conf in SF a few years ago - ran into an old friend who was contracting to the NSA - and then met the head of cybercrimes for the state dept (I cant recall his title sadly - I kept a pic of his business card for years, but have since lost it)
They invite me to dinner that night. There is about ~12 of us - and they are trading war stories of shit they have done in cybercrime blah blah (I was working at Lockheed at the time)
There was this super you, SUPER brilliant eng that was with them and he was talking about hacking this, that and the other - being on redteam and they had to physically infiltrate, pick locks and steal this and that from blueteam...
but there was a subtext which was fucking disturbing.
They were all bragging about these OPs...
And while I understand the national necessity of having such skills in your bet - the problem was that I realized I was sitting at a table with 100% psychopaths that didnt have a single moral fiber in their soul.... and it was about the thrill and ego of being "look at how fucking smart and technical and cool I am"
I literally excused myself from the table and acted as though I was going to use the restroom.
I simply walked out of the restaurant.
The point is, that these orgs use very young smart people and enable and empower them with autonomy, authority, and praise and you wind up with digital psychos.
I am looking at you [lots of surveillance companies all over HN]
So, FUCK authoritarian supporting, bullshit businesses.
The word "spy" isn't specific enough. It's enough to say that you don't want your Fourth Amendment rights violated.
It should be possible to do mass surveillance of Covid-19 without violating people's rights. It's just an additional constraint that other countries don't have. It will require some alternative approaches.
Other countries have scaled out thermal imaging for fever detection, face tracking for contact tracing, and have mobile apps that can warn people where a previous infected patient have visited before. I have yet to see any of that here.