Thread by @breadandnet

📍Drop in to this interactive session happening now!👇

#COVID19 vaccine “passports": a new frontier threatening human rights

with @marwasf @GhinwaHayek @veroluiza

#BreadandNet

@marwasf @GhinwaHayek @veroluiza "The issue in the MENA region is that there is unequal access to vaccines." @veroluiza

@veroluiza : In countries where vaccines are mandatory, making digital "vaccine documents" mandatory will leave out many people who do not have access to technology. Many people are denied access to certain social services as a result.

@veroluiza @GhinwaHayek: Technology is a double-edged sword. While it might be supporting public health measures, it can be discriminative against vulnerable populations, especially the elderly and migrant communities and intrusive in terms of data privacy.

@GhinwaHayek: People who are stateless or undocumented would fear registering on such platforms because they don't trust the gov or the entities promoting these services, creating a huge gap.

@GhinwaHayek: The vaccine passport has been a hurdle in some countries, especially those asking for a specific kind of vaccine, keeping families apart and denying others opportunities to work abroad.

@veroluiza: Contact-tracing apps and vaccine passports collect a lot of information. If the information is on a centralized registry, it easy for attackers to access this data, which is all in one place. It is more concerning when this takes place in surveillance states.

Some recommendations from the speakers:

- know your data privacy rights
- acknowledge that access to vaccines is not equal among all
- ask your government for more transparency
- governments should implement effective technologies rather than what's trending

📎 Check out the full policy report on digital vaccine passports from @accessnow:

accessnow.org/cms/assets/upl…