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Charlie Warzel, an Opinion writer for The New York Times, had been incensed about the smartphone apps that track our paths through the world.

Then, he said, the urgency of the pandemic made him question his beliefs.

In a conference call this week with readers, Charlie talked about his conflicting views on technology right now, and why he thinks health experts should be more upfront about what they don’t know. (Charlie’s dogs also butted into the call.)

These are edited excerpts from the conversation. You can also listen to the recording here.

Shira: What do you think about using technology to track people infected with the coronavirus?

Charlie: In working on the Privacy Project, it became clear to me that being surveilled all the time by private companies was an absolute violation of our rights. But when I first heard about location tracking for this pandemic, I thought, “We need to understand where everyone is at a given time so we can contain this.”