Listening to the Lords STC committee evidence session on the contact tracing app, and somewhat struck by the lack of diversity in the expert panel on ethics.
Anyway, Hugh Whittall rather gets to the heart of the matter, in answer to the Q “have the government made adequate ethical considerations?”, he says, “We don’t really know. Decisions are never entirely led by the science.” This is all about transparency, or lack thereof.
From about 16:49:00 onwards @mikarv gives a good breakdown of useful practical steps towards transparent ways of working parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/68…
@mikarv Typically, the most crunchy bit is absolutely at the end and the point at which public health ethics and technology best practice rub up against one another.
@mikarv Hugh Nuttall at 16:55: "it is v difficult sometimes to express precisely what the [data] is used for, where some consent is broadly expresssed … If that is the case other parts of the ethical infrastructure must serve a purpose of governing and overseeing"
@mikarv While there are many committess, experts etc, the “ethical infrastructure” for the governance and creation of new public-service technology is sorely lacking. I don’t mean service assessments or QA, but a body with the authority to say this will, or will not, pass.
