Balancing Data Policies: What COVID-19 Taught Us

co-authored with **Theodoros Evgeniou** and Anton Ovchinnikov

The success of pandemic management is measured by the efficiency of our response, as well as our preparedness for the day that will come after. Amid the fight, while ensuring that any adverse effects are mitigated, we must not forget the necessity of being able to return to normal, nor compromise our readiness to define a new normal. We advocate that it is exactly now that we must learn from the current events and prepare for the future, before the risk of complacency sets in.

A Balanced, not Dichotomous Approach

Yuval Harari postured in his Financial Times article on ‘The World After Coronavirus’ that “In this time of crisis, we face two particularly important choices. The first is between totalitarian surveillance and citizen empowerment. The second is between nationalist isolation and global solidarity”. Such questions are representative of current technology and privacy policy thinking. Whether these policies result in the extremes of ‘totalitarian surveillance’ or with ‘citizen empowerment’ is theoretical dichotomous deliberation.

Read full article on UN Global Centre for Technology, Innovation and Sustainable Development blog.