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Brazilian president shelves plans for surveillance in fight against coronavirus
Jair Bolsonaro puts breaks on the introduction of a tracking system aimed at supporting policies around social distancing.
By Angelica Mari for Brazil Tech | April 13, 2020 -- 22:39 GMT
Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has shelved plans to use surveillance tools to get insights on citizen mobility during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The decision was made public by the minister of science, technology, innovation and communications, Marcos Pontes, who posted details on his social networks on Sunday (12), citing concerns over citizen privacy.
According to the minister, the federal government had been approached on March, 27 by the telecoms sector with a cloud-based system that uses georeferenced information on urban mobility in real-time. Insights include heat maps on population movements during the pandemic.
The initial evaluation of the platform had been positive and the ministry appeared keen to use the system, given similar uses of surveillance tools elsewhere. Pontes even recorded a video about the tool, which was due to be implemented in the first week of April - until Bolsonaro told the minister to change plans.
More:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/brazilian-president-shelves-plans-for-surveillance-in-fight-against-coronavirus/#ftag=RSSbaffb68
