Apple and Google helped enable tools to support contact tracing, but did so on their terms – prioritising user privacy over government surveillance. This may have been a good call, but should decisions like this be taking place in the private realm? Usually, laws are made by elected officials. Now, we have a system of arbitrary power without any clear process of accountability. In the words of the internet activist Rebecca MacKinnon, the ‘consent of the networked’ – that is, every one of us – is being weakened.
