Serbia's mistake was proposing this via law, instead of just forcing the population to track themselves with COVID check-ins and then tapping into the data:
The problem is always overreach. The problem of surveillance isn't a problem at all if you could trust every actor to do things right, it's just that you can't.
> The problem of surveillance isn't a problem at all if you could trust every actor to do things right, it's just that you can't.
I disagree. The problem of surveillance still stands even if you trust each and every single actor directly or indirectly involved in it. The critical aspect is that surveillance is made possible through significant investments in infrastructure, and infrastructure outlives actors and governments and regimes. Once you have the infrastructure in place, all it takes is a bad actor to weaponized it and use it to oppress and control you.
Your argument is contradictory. If you trust 'each and every actor directly or indirectly involved in it' then by definition there can be no bad actor in the future to oppress you.
You must realize that in the developed world, we already track ourselves by virtue of using credit cards at every business we visit.
How is tapping into that any more difficult than a COVID app? The three major credit rating agencies already have complete knowledge of every place I visit, and every single thing I buy.
They will happily sell this information in aggregate to any Tom, Dick, or Harry who wants it, and hand over every detail in response to a police warrant.
The government has full access to this data, though. Whether or not a private agency with a profit motive, or a public health agency with a public health motive collects it first is irrelevant.
What do you do when, say, the TSA, or the police, or some equivalent thereof steals it, as was discussed in another thread?
I take it you also don't use any online service, because 99% of them don't take cash? Don't own a cellphone, because that broadcasts your location data 24/7? Don't own any device that actively scans for wi-fi networks?
Your government already has fingers in all of those data sources.
When the police steal my cash, I'll take that hit (it has never happened yet). I do not have a cellphone nor does my laptop scan for WiFi networks. I do need to get that cash, so I do go to cash machines to get it from my account. Those machines are generally close to where I live, but I guess the state already has my address, so not much new is revealed there (my location near where I live a couple of times a week).
I do buy a few things (books, DVDs) online, and pay with a card -- that reveals my address to that business, but that would be the same if I sent cash (or a cheque), they do need an address to which to deliver. As I say, I assume the state has my address, but there's no need to give them my location when I'm not there (nor to tell them when it is I'm not there).
So returning to your assertions:
"we already track ourselves by virtue of using credit cards at every business we visit"
speak for yourself, I pay with cash
"The three major credit rating agencies already have complete knowledge of every place I visit, and every single thing I buy"
That's your choice, they have no idea where I go, nor what I buy except that I'm rather keen on French novels and 1960s Italian films. Mind you, since I'm in the UK those suspicious activities might land me in trouble with the Brexit police [looks nervously out of the window].
If you're in the US, this isn't true. Businesses are only required to accept cash for debts, i.e. where you pay after services are rendered. That's why dollar bills specifically say "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private."
The gas station can refuse your cash payment for a candy bar because there's no "debt" yet. A restaurant can't refuse to take cash unless they make you pay before they bring you food.
It's not common to do, especially since cash is so easy and cheap to handle, but it is legal.
> Covid adds a bit of friction to this but I have yet to be refused a transaction because of a cash payment.
Earlier in the pandemic, most places near me had signs up that they weren't taking cash because of COVID.
That depends on where you are. In the UK, while any debt can be paid in cash by law, there is no requirement for a business to refuse to accept cash for a purchase. There are some places that don't accept cash, some coffee shops, most cinemas: I guess that's more because they expect their staff to pilfer. Personally, I just don't use those places.
Okay, so in addition to leaving a trail for every business you patronize, this adds a few non-business entities to that trail.
Qualitatively, the difference between the two is academic. I'd take pearl-clutching on this subject seriously if we didn't already scan ourselves into every establishment we patronize, by swiping a piece of plastic. This ship has sailed decades ago, thanks to cash-back, and not actually having to deal with cash, either on my end, or the merchant's end, and thanks to everyone owning a cellphone (Which is a device that broadcasts your location 24/7.)
https://theconversation.com/police-access-to-covid-check-in-...