As country after country records exponentially growing numbers of COVID19 cases, governments have unveiled new laws, or dusted off emergency provisions hidden in old laws, granting them increased emergency powers to surveil, control and restrict the lives of their citizens. South Korea, Mainland China and Hong Kong were among the first to develop compulsory mobile phone apps that harvest a wealth of personal information and inform authorities of where people are at all times12. In Mainland China, any resident who wishes to enter any public space, or in many cases their own apartment complex, must scan a QR code and display their “Healthcode” before being allowed to enter. To receive this code, an app must be downloaded; all permissions must be given including personal information such as national ID card number and location information. Refusing to use this app means being imprisoned in one’s own home and the likely loss of one’s job as they won’t be allowed into public spaces or workplaces. According to Politico, Europe is now jumping on the bandwagon as “Spain, Romania, Slovakia and Poland have already created their own version of these apps”.3

On March 29th, the Australian government released its coronavirus information app which was believed to not collect any personal information beyond your phone number and didn’t involve real time tracking4. However, the government has been learning from Singapore and taking notes on how to develop their own tracking app5. Australia’s Chief Medical Officer stated, “We've actually got the code from Singapore, we're very keen to use it and use it perhaps even more extensively than Singapore,”6. The Australian government is at pains to claim that the tracking app will be voluntary and urged people to download the little spy on their phones, yet Morrison couldn’t help spilling the beans in a plausibly deniable way, saying: “My preference is not to do that[make it mandatory], my preference is to give Australians the go of getting it right ... I don’t want to be drawn on that [making it mandatory], I want to give Australians the opportunity to get it right,”7. The media war to ram tracking down Australian’s throats has already begun. One particularly on the nose ABC editorial claimed, “Conspiracy theorists would have us believe that the Government can access mobile phone technology and public security cameras to achieve mass surveillance — but it can't.”8. This is of course a blatant lie, as actual academic research has proven the “conspiracy theorists” correct9. The author of that amazing anti-privacy hot take works for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, an organisation founded by the Australian government, with government appointed directors, partly funded by the Department of Defence and that has received US State Department money1011!