BKC Executive Director Urs Gasser is partnering with colleagues at Harvard Medical School and the T.H. Chan School of Public Health to pioneer the use of mobility data to track the spread and incidences of COVID-19. The group recently had a letter published in Science magazine, also emphasizing the need for safeguards on privacy. Gasser is also working with a team of experts at ETH Zurich on a forthcoming paper that looks at new apps and technologies for contact tracing, in light of ethical as well as health issues. He is also continuing to work with the global Network of Internet and Society Research Centers on a series of discussions around the intersection of public health and technology issues, with a focus on vulnerable populations and COVID-19.
In a conversation with Harvard Law Today, Gasser sheds light on the benefits of using data to address the pandemic and calls on calls on the federal government to approve comprehensive digital privacy protections.