Thread by @StefSimanowitz

1). The Head of Tech at @amnesty warns in @Newsweek:

“As companies scramble to create an even more intimate marketplace of our data - one that trades in insights about our biological selves - you don't need to strain hard to imagine the endgame”. #COVID
newsweek.com/biological-pri…

2). The article by @TanyaOCarroll of @AmnestyTech, warns how some companies want to “to capture more data about your body than has even before been possible - combining genetic sequencing, data from frequent blood tests, microbiome insights.” #COVID19 amnesty.org/en/latest/news…

3). The piece points out that "while tech companies are renowned for moving fast, they also famously break things. One of the things that could be left broken [after the #coronavirus pandemic] is our right to privacy if bio-invasive surveillance creeps in as a new norm." #COVID19

4). The article says: "The fact that health data is governed by strict data privacy regimes in Europe & the US has long been a frustration for those who want to cash in on the sector,

One way private ventures can gain access to health data is by partnering with governments."

5). "Even if they can't walk away with direct patient records, they can walk away with the lucrative AI models built from those records, which is the key that unlocks the value of the data. This helps explain why #Palantir, agreed to assist the govt's COVID-19 response fort £1."

6.) "The problem is that once health data is on the market, it can be used in all kinds of ways that could never have been understood or predicted when someone ticked a "consent" box."

This problem becomes far greater if there is no consent box to tick. #COVID19 #coronavirus

7). "In March, the PM held meeting on #coronavirus pandemic. The govt then quietly granted access to millions of health data records to Amazon, Microsoft & Google - plus #Palantir - to build a #COVID19 Datastore, aggregating data from multiple sources, including testing data."

8). Artificial Intelligence models trained on genetics can be used in commercial ways & privately-held genetic data has already been used by law enforcement without the awareness or consent of those whose data was shared.

This is a form of “bio-invasive surveillance capitalism”.

9). The surveillance-based business model poses an unprecedented threat to human rights.

CEO of Chinese iCarbonX, said he wants to produce "an exact 3-D figure of you: the fat, the muscle".

The main product currently advertised on the company's website?

A #COVID19 testing kit.

10). “It’s now clear that continuous high-levels of population-scale testing will be necessary if we’re to co-exist with the virus out-of-lockdown. But people need to be able to trust that when they take a COVID test their data is protected & won't be used for any other purpose.”

11). Population-scale testing may seem like a distant ambition, but in April, the govt announced it had set up the Rapid Testing Consortium & has rprtdly ordered 50 million British-developed, 10 minute, pin-prick anti-body test kits.

One for almost every adult in the country.

12). This month, both UK & US govt’s took control of #COVID19 data.

In UK, SAGE & PHE were sidelined in favour of the secretive Joint Biosecurity Centre.

In US, the CDC was sidelined in favour of the HHS.

The common denominator in both? Palantir...
undercovid.org/articles/palan…