I agree with Snowden and his views on the state of privacy in the United States (US). Over the years, we have been asked to sacrifice more and more for the so-called greater good. The most prominent recent example of this is the aftermath of the patriot act. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, we were all forced to sacrifice our privacy to the US government for the sake of fighting terrorism. In reality, the patriot act was mainly used to terrorize brown and Muslim communities within our own borders. The powers granted the patriot act were supposed to be temporary but some of them have not yet been repealed. With this in mind, it is very easy to imagine a scenario where we never recover the freedoms we lost in the process of controlling the coronavirus.
While discussing some methods to control the spread of coronavirus, Snowden explains location tracking by triangulation through phone connections to wifi signals. While this is very helpful in determining who may have been exposed to the virus, I find this one especially worrying because this kind of data may be given or sold to big corporations. Think about how Facebook and other tech companies give away our data to have it used for targeted advertising. This location tracking could be used to show you targeted ads for places you frequently pass by or visit. We have lost more and more privacy over the years, especially with the rise and technology and the surveillance state. This is a very important issue that should not be overlooked; We may not have telescreens, but we do have CCTV.
