Pandemic dilemma: Emergency surveillance won’t be easy to unplug

In an emergency, picking health over privacy as a higher value seems like a no-brainer. But what happens when the emergency passes? That’s a complicating factor that weighs heavily for rights advocates.

The coronavirus pandemic has brought into sharp focus the work of doctors, nurses, and delivery workers. Less obvious, but equally significant, is the work of those in an altogether different field: surveillance.

As they scramble to bring the pandemic under control, governments around the world are implementing or considering the use of sophisticated, and at times intrusive, monitoring...