[liberationtech] Kushner's team seeks national coronavirus surveillance system

[Yosem Companys]

Excerpts below:
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner’s task force has reached out to a range
of health technology companies about creating a national coronavirus
surveillance system to give the government a near real-time view of where
patients are seeking treatment and for what, and whether hospitals can
accommodate them, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions.
The proposed national network could help determine which areas of the country
can safely relax social-distancing rules and which should remain vigilant. But
it would also represent a significant expansion of government use of individual
patient data, forcing a new reckoning over privacy limits amid a national
crisis.
Health privacy laws already grant broad exceptions for national security
purposes. But the prospect of compiling a national database of potentially
sensitive health information has prompted concerns about its impact on civil
liberties well after the coronavirus threat recedes, with some critics comparing
it to the Patriot Act enacted after the 9/11 attacks.
Already, the Trump administration has sought to ease data-sharing rules and
assure health data companies they won’t be penalized for sharing information
with state and federal officials — a move driven in part by Kushner’s push to
assemble the national network, according to an individual with knowledge of the
decision.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/07/kushner-coronavirus-surveillance-174165
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