[Air-L] About that COVID-19 app your university just required you to install...

[Lilly Irani]

Thank you for posting this, Christian. We at UC San Diego have not been
given an app yet but I'm sure it is in the works. We had a townhall about
similar concerns about data use and blurry lines between public health and
research. We summarized our townhall, published for our campus specifically
here in case folks are curious:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q7O4rwe6IeEBMAlt2wortNpWyLSGFAYYQzO8X91OX2Y
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q7O4rwe6IeEBMAlt2wortNpWyLSGFAYYQzO8X91OX2Y/edit>



On Tue, Aug 25, 2020 at 12:23 PM Christian Sandvig <csandvig at umich.edu>
wrote:

> Dear AIR-L friends,
>
> I bet many of you are among the millions who are just about to be required
> to install a new coronavirus-related app by your university. I'm writing to
> announce that the ESC Center has just released 15 best practices for
> pandemic apps at US universities. It is a very short read. Here is the
> list:
>
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://esc.umich.edu/pandemic-apps/__;!!Mih3wA!X8bSUt1d9U0hvWhEu5Y6JlJ_4Oakmeaa9kAmKEH3msDpf9eWQiF-xjI1mPlO6A$
>
>
> My own personal takeaways are: [1.] App experts aren't recommending apps.
> (At least, not for many of the things they are being deployed to do.) And
> [2.] The apps being deployed right now by universities are deviating widely
> from good practice in terms of human rights and software development.
>
> These apps are doing all kinds of unexpected things in the name of the
> pandemic. A great example is Albion College, which reportedly just deployed
> the Genetworx Aura app to geofence its campus. If you live on campus and
> decide to go into town, they lock you out of your house. Source:
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/19/coronavirus-albion-security-flaws-app/__;!!Mih3wA!X8bSUt1d9U0hvWhEu5Y6JlJ_4Oakmeaa9kAmKEH3msDpf9eWQiF-xjKJNq5FyA$
>
> I'd be interested in any thoughts on how your university app measures up.
>
> Please feel free to forward this if you know of a good audience for it.
>
> Christian
>
> --
> Christian Sandvig
> Director, Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC)
> H. Marshall McLuhan Collegiate Professor of Information, Communication, &
> Media
> University of Michigan
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://umich.edu/*csandvig__;fg!!Mih3wA!X8bSUt1d9U0hvWhEu5Y6JlJ_4Oakmeaa9kAmKEH3msDpf9eWQiF-xjJlXZJihw$
> +
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://esc.umich.edu/__;!!Mih3wA!X8bSUt1d9U0hvWhEu5Y6JlJ_4Oakmeaa9kAmKEH3msDpf9eWQiF-xjKM2mIk2Q$
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://aoir.org__;!!Mih3wA!X8bSUt1d9U0hvWhEu5Y6JlJ_4Oakmeaa9kAmKEH3msDpf9eWQiF-xjKtph803A$
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at:
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org__;!!Mih3wA!X8bSUt1d9U0hvWhEu5Y6JlJ_4Oakmeaa9kAmKEH3msDpf9eWQiF-xjKQhfx4dw$
>
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.aoir.org/__;!!Mih3wA!X8bSUt1d9U0hvWhEu5Y6JlJ_4Oakmeaa9kAmKEH3msDpf9eWQiF-xjJlWVM1Xg$
>