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Police seize on COVID-19 tech to expand global surveillance

(AP Illustration/Peter Hamlin) (AP Illustration/Peter Hamlin) FILE - Holding a fan with the health check QR code printed on it, a worker in a protective suit talks on her phone at a coronavirus testing site in Beijing, Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022. The sign in background reads: "Fight the epidemic." (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File) A motorcade follows the coffin of Rebels biker Nick Martin into Pinnaroo Cemetery in Perth, Australia, on Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020. The former Rebels president was gunned down earlier in the month at the Perth Motorplex. Martin’s murder left police a trove of evidence that led them to the culprit. But they wanted more. The coronavirus pandemic provided it in the form of an electronic dragnet: QR code check-in data from contact tracing apps of 2,439 fans who attended the December 2020 race. (Richard Wainwright/AAP via AP) Hyderabad City Police Commissioner C.V. Anand, a staunch defender of the department's massive surveillance capabilities, speaks during an interview in Hyderabad, India, Saturday, April 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.) S Q Masood, who is suing to find out more about facial recognition technology used by police, speaks during an interview in Hyderabad, India, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022. His case could set the tone for India’s growing ambition to combine emerging technology with law enforcement in the world’s largest democracy, experts said. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.) Surveillance cameras are mounted above a street with the landmark Charminar monument seen in the background, in Hyderabad, India, Friday, Jan. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.) Employees work in the Command and Control Center at the Hyderabad Police Headquarters in Hyderabad, India, Thursday, April 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.) A sign warns passers-by that they are under surveillance near the landmark Charminar monument in Hyderabad, India, Friday, Jan. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.) Majd Ramlawi works in a cafe at the Cotton Merchants' Market near the entrance to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2022. Ramlawi was serving coffee in Jerusalem’s Old City when a chilling text message appeared on his phone. “You have been spotted as having participated in acts of violence in the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” it read in Arabic. “We will hold you accountable.” Ramlawi, then 19, was among hundreds of people whom civil rights attorneys estimate got the text the previous year at the height of one of the most turbulent recent periods in the Holy Land. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) FILE - Palestinians run from sound grenades thrown by Israeli police in front of the Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem, Friday, May 21, 2021, as a cease-fire took effect between Hamas and Israel after an 11-day war. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean, File) A worker in a protective suit talks on her phone as residents wearing face masks stand in line for their routine COVID-19 tests at a testing site in Beijing, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) FILE - A woman shouts during a protest in Beijing, Sunday, Nov. 27, 2022. Protesters angered by strict anti-virus measures called for China's powerful leader to resign, an unprecedented rebuke as authorities in at least eight cities struggled to suppress demonstrations that represent a rare direct challenge to the ruling Communist Party. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File) A worshipper stands in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem, Jan. 29, 2022, and holds his mobile phone showing a threatening message. The May 2021 text, signed ”Israeli intelligence,” reads: "Hello! You have been spotted as having participated in acts of violence in Al-Aqsa Mosque, and we will hold you accountable." (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Police seize on COVID-19 tech to expand global surveillance