The Hill
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"The price of liberty is a QR code" via (@TheHillOpinion
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https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1425854350040211461
excerpt from article:
Trying to convince millions of skeptics that vaccines are safe and effective is not working — and it is unlikely this will change since this behavior is connected to a sense of “belonging” to a particular group. James Clear, the author of “Atomic Habits”, once wrote, “We don't always believe things because they are correct. Sometimes we believe things because they make us look good to the people we care about.” Indeed, several experiments conducted by researchers in the fields of cognition and psychology have shown us time and again that, when faced with a choice between a fact (vaccines work) and a friend with different beliefs, people will most likely choose the friend. This means that other types of technologies will have to be used to keep us safe, including tracking and monitoring.
In April 2020, due to the pandemic, Google and Apple partnered to develop a contact tracing app to anonymously keep track of nearby phones. If one of the owners on this list of phones was diagnosed with the virus, alerts would be sent to people who had been nearby. Data has never been more important — and like every valuable asset, it must be protected and used wisely. Since the beginning of the 2010s, countries have been writing legislation on the matter, and arguably the most famous piece is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Written in 2016 by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, its fundamental objective is to make sure individuals in the European Union and in the European Economic Area have control over their personal data
In the U.S., where federal privacy legislation is still being discussed, the harsh realities of a world riddled with an airborne new virus are not going to wait for us; digital vaccine passports — not unlike the International Certification of Vaccination created by the WHO back in 1959 — is an important tool that will help all of us getting back to some kind of normalcy. Stored in your phone and enforced by modern authentication techniques, that QR code is a small price to pay to be able to safely enjoy what we took for granted 18 months ago.
Guy Perelmuter is the founder of GRIDS Capital, a deep tech venture capital firm focusing on artificial intelligence, robotics, life science and technological infrastructure. He is the author of “Present Future,” which was recognized by the Brazilian Book Chamber as the Best Science Book of 2020 in the 62nd edition of the annual Jabuti Prize.