RECENT analysis of the government’s Covid-19 mobile application by an independent researcher has confirmed local digital rights experts’ concerns regarding Pakistan’s use of technology to monitor and tackle the spread of the virus. Calling it “the worst Covid-19 app [he] analysed,” French cybersecurity analyst Robert Baptiste pointed out significant flaws in the app — which was developed by the National IT Board — that potentially expose the personal information of several hundred thousand Pakistanis who have downloaded it. NITB CEO Shabahat Ali Shah subsequently issued a somewhat defensive statement claiming that Covid-positive users whose coordinates appear on the app’s map have consented to this feature, having accepted its privacy policy and terms and conditions. Though eventually conceding to order a security audit of the app, this statement betrays the government’s casual attitude towards the safety and privacy of citizens’ personal data. Not only is the app’s privacy policy far too brief and vague, it calls into question how users can be expected to provide informed consent to forfeit an inviolable fundamental right such as that of privacy.

Besides, this is not the first such alarming development since the global pandemic afforded the government a licence to expand the scope of surveillance technologies to the general population and enhance data collection. In April, Prime Minister Imran Khan revealed that the ISI’s track and trace technology, developed for anti-terrorism operations, was now being used to track Covid-19 patients. In addition to reports of widespread phone monitoring and geo-fencing, there is also the issue of how personal data is being collected, stored and transmitted. Since the very first cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in the country, patients’ names and details have been repeated leaked to the public. And since the formation of the Tiger Force, spreadsheets containing volunteers’ personal information have been circulating unfettered online. Granted, technology has a significant role to play in Pakistan’s battle against Covid-19. However, it can only be a supplement, not a substitute for good governance — a significant part of which is ensuring the personal security and rights of constituents. The government must ensure that the use of technologies to monitor citizens is subjected to rigorous public scrutiny, and operationalised only within the context of explicit parameters, including sunset provisions. The lack of transparency around Pakistan’s use of surveillance technology and data collection is unsettling, to say the least, and risks exposing the country and its citizens to immense harm.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2020