EFF: The Dangers of COVID-19 Surveillance Proposals to the Future of Protest

EFF: The Dangers of COVID-19 Surveillance Proposals to the Future of Protest by Matthew Guariglia (“Many of the new surveillance powers now sought by the government to address the COVID-19 crisis would harm our First Amendment rights for years to come. People will be chilled and deterred from speaking out, protesting in public places, and associating with like-minded advocates if they fear scrutiny from cameras, drones, face recognition, thermal imaging, and location trackers. It is all too easy for governments to redeploy the infrastructure of surveillance from pandemic containment to political spying. It won’t be easy to get the government to suspend its newly acquired tech and surveillance powers.”)