September 18, 2020
Digital Person Symposium - Digital Identity in Humanities
Proximity-sensing apps were initially touted as a heaven-sent tool for managing the pandemic and its aftermath. They definitely had a role to play in this -- but only as an augmentation of traditional labour-intensive methods of testing, tracing and isolating.
This presentation is chaired by Professor John Naughton with presentations from:
- Professor Julia Powles from University of Western Australia
- Dr. Heleen Janssen from University of Cambridge & Coordinator Emerging Technologies & Public Values, Ministry of the Interior (NL)
- Professor Orla Lynskey, from the London School of Economics
Tech 'solutionism' is the belief that for every social problem there is a tech solution. Proximity-sensing apps were initially touted as a heaven-sent tool for managing the pandemic and its aftermath. They definitely had a role to play in this -- but only as an augmentation of traditional labour-intensive methods of testing, tracing and isolating. To be effective, proximity-sensing apps needed wide adoption and public trust. Most of them failed to achieve this. Why?
