Corporate contact tracing as a pandemic response

ABSTRACT

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a steady stream of propositions from tech giants and start-ups alike has furnished us with the idea that GPS- or Bluetooth-enabled contact tracing apps are a vital part of the pandemic response. This commentary considers these apps as ‘corporate contact tracing’, emphasizing the private-sector role that such developments imply. We first discuss corporate contact tracing’s potential to de-center the power of public health authorities. Then, using the frames of surveillance capitalism and disaster capitalism, we suggest how corporate contact tracing might feed the rise of corporate power in the public sphere. We question its capacity to address structural inequalities and to foster a social justice vision of public health. And, we wonder whether corporate contact tracing might intensify the effects of discriminatory design and algorithmic oppression. We conclude by calling for a discussion of this technology beyond questions of privacy and efficacy.

KEYWORDS:

• contact tracing
• COVID-19
• mobile phone applications (apps)
• pandemic
• surveillance capitalism and disaster capitalism

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Machine Agencies COVID-Response Working Group, especially Allison Cohen, Stefanie Duguay, Abhishek Gupta, Orit Halpern, Najmeh Khalili-Mahani, Marie-Jean Meurs, Chris Salter, Bart Simon, Stuart Thiel, and Ceyda Yolgömez. Thanks, also, to our students and colleagues for helpful discussions of the broader ideas addressed in this commentary, as well as to Professor Lindsay McLaren and the two anonymous reviewers of an earlier version for their incisive and helpful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. While the predictions of market analysts should be taken with a grain of salt, one estimate valued the contact tracing market at $4.3 billion (Leswing, 2020).

2. The UK government has now dropped the NHSX app, opting instead to bring together ‘the work done so far’ with the ‘Google/Apple framework’ (United Kingdom, Department of Health & Social Care [UK DH&SC], 2020).

3. Apple claims that it is the ‘largest taxpayer in the world’ (Apple, 2017). But, in a world where many wealthy corporations do not pay taxes, what is the precise value of that claim (Cerullo, 2019)? How did companies that have exploited weaknesses in tax law contribute – however indirectly – to the conditions of inequality and public-sector fragility that are exacerbating our current situation (Bowers, 2017)?

Additional information

Funding

Martin French would like to acknowledge the Fonds de Recherche du Québec-Société et Culture [2017-BJ-202106], which supported his program of research during the period when this article was written. Adrian Guta is supported by a University of Windsor, Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Humanities Research Group Fellowship.