Ethics, AI, mass data and pandemic challenges: Responsible data use and infrastructure application for surveillance and pre-emptive tracing post-crisis

Author

Mark FINDLAY, Singapore Management UniversityFollow
Jia Yuan LOKE, Singapore Management UniversityFollow
Nydia REMOLINA LEON, Singapore Management UniversityFollow
Yum Yin, Benjamin (TAN Renyan) THAM, Singapore Management UniversityFollow

Publication Type

Working Paper

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

5-2020

Abstract

As the COVID-19 health pandemic rages governments and private companies across the globe are utilising AI-assisted surveillance, reporting, mapping and tracing technologies with the intention of slowing the spread of the virus. These technologies have the capacity to amass personal data and share for community control and citizen safety motivations that empower state agencies and inveigle citizen co-operation which could only be imagined outside such times of real and present danger. While not cavilling with the short-term necessity for these technologies and the data they control, process and share in the health regulation mission, this paper argues that this infrastructure application for surveillance has serious ethical and regulatory implications in the medium and long term in relation to individual dignity, civil liberties, transparency, data aggregation, explainability and other governance challenges. To conduct this analysis, the paper presents the Singapore and China case studies, and offers a comparative description based on the many more initiatives implemented worldwide in order to understand the purpose, goal and risk of these infrastructures. The analysis looks at data protection and citizen integrity and reflects on other surveillance methods outside the health context, such as initiatives implemented in the financial sector, where similar challenges have arisen.

Keywords

COVID-19, ethics, data protection, data use, data privacy, artificial intelligence, surveillance, tracing, big data, coronavirus, pandemic, Singapore, China

Discipline

Asian Studies | Internet Law | Privacy Law | Public Health | Science and Technology Law

Research Areas

Innovation, Technology and the Law

First Page

1

Last Page

51

Identifier

10.2139/ssrn.3592283

Publisher

SMU Centre for AI & Data Governance Research Paper No. 2020/02

City or Country

Singapore

Citation

FINDLAY, Mark; LOKE, Jia Yuan; REMOLINA LEON, Nydia; and THAM, Yum Yin, Benjamin (TAN Renyan). Ethics, AI, mass data and pandemic challenges: Responsible data use and infrastructure application for surveillance and pre-emptive tracing post-crisis. (2020). 1-51.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/3175

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3592283