Technology Policy and COVID-19

On December 7, 2021, the Senate voted to reconfirm Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to the Federal Communications Commission. Rosenworcel has a proven track record of success on many issues, including leading efforts to open up unlicensed and shared spectrum, closing the “homework gap,” and most recently, launching the FCC’s Emergency Broadband Benefit.

On November 5, 2021, the House of Representatives passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a $1.2 trillion package that includes $65 billion for broadband infrastructure and affordability. “We are particularly relieved to see that the Emergency Broadband Benefit created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic will continue in the form of the more permanent Affordable Connectivity Program, especially given the role high prices play in especially preventing low-income communities, communities of color, and Tribes from getting online,” Sarah Morris said in a statement.

On October 26, 2021, President Biden nominated former OTI Director Alan Davidson as administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, acting Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel as the agency’s permanent chair, and public interest lawyer Gigi Sohn as an FCC commissioner. In a statement, Sarah Morris praised how Rosenworcel, as acting chair, “quickly launched two programs that are helping students and low-income households access the internet during the pandemic.”

Congress overwhelmingly passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a $1.2 trillion package that includes $65 billion for broadband infrastructure and affordability. The bill is a step in the right direction toward closing the digital divide, especially during the ongoing pandemic when broadband access has been crucial.

OTI met with FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel via phone to discuss the connectivity needs of low-income consumers in the context of the Emergency Broadband Benefit program and Verizon's proposed acquisition of TracFone, recommending pricing guardrails to protect EBB subscribers from coercive upselling tactics, a ban on data caps, mandatory use of the Broadband Nutrition Label, a simplified application process, renewed outreach to Pell Grant students, and a ban on negative credit reporting for EBB subscribers.

OTI submitted public comments along with MediaJustice and Access Humboldt on the Department of Treasury’s Interim Final Rule to implement the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund and the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund established under the American Rescue Plan Act, making recommendations for how to ensure that this funding best connects the communities impacted most heavily by this virus.

OTI's case study on the cost of connectivity in the Navajo Nation, prepared by OTI program associate Claire Park as part of our 2020 Cost of Connectivity research, is cited in a PBS NewsHour segment on how COVID-19 affected the Navajo Nation.

OTI published a comprehensive FAQ on the Emergency Broadband Benefit. Check this piece out to see who is eligible, how to apply, and more.

Maggie Farry wrote about how federal, state, and local governments can approach the connectivity crisis affecting the Native Nations, which have been “facing unique challenges to broadband access at a time when connectivity has proven essential for distance learning, telehealth appointments, meetings over video platforms, connecting to remote work, and much more.”

OTI celebrated the opening of enrollment for the FCC's Emergency Broadband Benefit, which will provide eligible households up to $50 per month ($75 in Tribal areas) for internet service. With millions weathering the pandemic without access to the internet, the program marks a huge step forward for internet affordability and broadband access. OTI also produced an FAQ about the program for Congressional offices and others helping eligible consumers sign up.

Claire Park wrote for New America's Calamity as Catalyst project about how the lack of accessible and affordable internet access on Tribal lands has deeply affected the communities during the pandemic as school, work, health care, and more went remote seemingly overnight.

OTI urged Congress to pass the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act, a comprehensive bill that would improve our broadband infrastructure and make internet service more affordable and equitable.

OTI praised the inclusion of over $7 billion dollars in funding for E-Rate in the American Rescue Plan, which will help schools and libraries keep students and teachers connected to remote learning during the pandemic.

Michael Calabrese wrote about how a use-it-or-share-it rule, as seen in the emergency Special Temporary Authorizations that were granted in response to the pandemic-induced surge in home broadband use, “expands productive use of spectrum and facilitates more communication and consumer welfare without the undue risk of harmful interference or the undermining of primary licensees’ deployment plans.”

OTI's Claire Park wrote for The Washington Post about how states' reliance on online portals for vaccine scheduling puts vaccinations at the mercy of the digital divide and leaves hard-hit communities—including the elderly, low-income people, and people of color—behind.

OTI's Claire Park collaborated with Lisa Guernsey and Sabia Prescott of New America's Education Policy program on a report surveying over 2,600 people on their use of public libraries during the pandemic. Their findings shed light on how libraries adapted to the pandemic and how libraries can expand their role in bridging the digital divide. The report was accompanied by an event featuring the authors and other experts.

OTI hailed a federal judge's rejection of an industry-led challenge to California's net neutrality law. The decisions clears the way for the law to take effect and make sure Californians get the internet service they pay for without interference from their provider—a critical need during the pandemic.

OTI submitted reply comments to the FCC detailing recommendations for the successful implementation of the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB), including establishing a sound verification process for the program, broadly defining who is eligible for the EBB, prohibiting data caps and upselling, and more.

OTI's report provides a roadmap for reviving and strengthening the Lifeline program after four years of regulatory war under the prior FCC.

OTI filed a petition asking the FCC to reconsider its October 2020 order reaffirming the repeal of net neutrality. The repeal did particular damage to the Lifeline program, which the FCC critically needs to strengthen during the pandemic.

OTI applauded the Department of Justice's decision to drop its case challenging California's net neutrality lawsuit, which is needed now more than ever as Californians rely on the internet to confront a pandemic and economic crisis.

OTI and New America's Education Policy program joined a coalition of national school and library groups filing an emergency petition asking the FCC to provide emergency funding and flexibility to help close the remote learning gap.

In comments to the FCC, OTI urged the agency to quickly and successfully implement the Emergency Broadband Benefit to help those who need it afford internet service.

Ajit Pai resigned as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission on January 20, 2021, after joining the FCC in 2012 as a commissioner and being elevated to chairman by President Trump in January 2017. OTI has opposed Pai’s actions (and inactions) on a range of issues, with Joshua Stager noting in a statement how Pai “has been asleep at the wheel while millions of people suffer through the COVID-19 pandemic without access to the internet.”

Claire Park wrote for Slate Future Tense about how the Biden administration could boost connectivity for those who need it most by bolstering the Lifeline program, suggesting that the Biden administration should increase the Lifeline subsidy “for at least the duration of the pandemic,” as “people are out of work, prices for broadband service are increasing, and internet in the home is more necessary than ever.”

OTI applauded the passage of a $900 billion stimulus bill that included long-overdue measures addressing the high cost of internet service in the United States. The bill was especially notable for establishing the Emergency Broadband Benefit OTI has long advocated for.

OTI's Joshua Stager wrote for Techdirt about the United States' broadband affordability crisis, and how to solve it.

OTI sent a letter urging Congress to address the high cost of internet service in any forthcoming pandemic relief legislation, including by providing an emergency broadband benefit for low-income households, students, and the new unemployed.

OTI urged the Senate to table Nathan Simington's nomination to the FCC and focus on pandemic relief.

OTI and the Wireless Future Project published a report detailing the impact of the remote learning gap on K-12 education and profiling a variety of innovative strategies by school districts to connect students without internet access at home.

Michael Calabrese and Amir Nasr's report details innovative measures schools across the country are taking to connect students without home broadband for online learning during COVID-19, and provides specific recommendations for how the FCC can help. Read the blog from Sabia Prescott of New America's Education Policy program for key takeaways from the report.

OTI condemned the FCC's 3-2 vote to reaffirm its 2017 net neutrality repeal, urging the agency to restore net neutrality and focus its efforts on tackling the connectivity crisis made more urgent by COVID-19.

Claire Park's report examines 109 chapters of the Navajo Nation and finds a market characterized by slow speeds, expensive service, and outdated infrastructure.

OTI condemned the White House's decision to abandon stimulus talks. With millions of Americans relying on the internet to weather the pandemic, stimulus to address the connectivity crisis is a dire need. OTI is urging the administration to adopt a number of crucial proposals, including a measure to expand E-Rate funding to help students connect at home, a ‘No Shutoffs’ mandate for broadband and other utilities, and an emergency broadband benefit for low-income people.

OTI, along with Access Now, Free Press, Public Knowledge, and Mozilla, filed an amicus brief urging a federal court to deny the Trump Administration’s motion to block a California net neutrality law from going into effect. The brief argues that telecom companies have a long history of violating net neutrality and haven’t performed well during the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, Californians need the protections of the state’s net neutrality law, which state legislators passed in 2018 over the strong objections of AT&T and other telecom industry lobbyists.

OTI and Access Now partnered to file comments urging the FCC to recognize the inadequate state of broadband availability in the United States, particularly in light of the crucial importance of ensuring universal internet access due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

OTI sent a letter to the House of Representatives in advance of a hearing on FCC oversight highlighting the agency's many failures and lost opportunities over the past four years, including an anemic response to COVID-19.

OTI director Sarah Morris wrote for LinkedIn News' The Road Ahead special report on how COVID-19 has exposed critical gap's in America's internet infrastructure, and how policymakers can act to promote both public health and economic recovery by closing the digital divide.

In the first Cost of Connectivity report to be published after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Claire Park and Becky Chao found further evidence that consumers in the United States pay more on average for monthly internet service than consumers abroad.

OTI submitted comments to the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee as they developed their party platforms for 2020. “Internet access is undeniably a fundamental part of our lives, and the affordability crisis in this country is particularly acute as people face record unemployment while needing the internet more than ever for access to work, education, and healthcare,” Sarah Morris said in a statement.

On July 1, 2020, the House of Representatives passed the Moving Forward Act (H.R. 2), a sweeping infrastructure package that would make internet service more accessible and affordable. In a statement, Joshua Stager called the vote “a historic victory for the millions of people who are suffering through the COVID-19 crisis without access to the internet.”

OTI and New America's Education Policy program endorsed legislation to provide free or discounted internet service during the pandemic. The program would be available to students enrolled in the National School Lunch or Pell Grant programs, as well as anyone who was recently laid off, furloughed, or qualified for the Lifeline program. The bill would also require Lifeline phone providers to offer unlimited talk and data so low-income subscribers do not have to ration their telecommunications needs during the pandemic.

In this webinar, Michael Calabrese and other panelists explored what school districts can do to connect all students to online learning, and how Congress and the Federal Communications Commission should help.

On June 24, 2020, the House Rural Broadband Task Force introduced the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act, a comprehensive bill that would make internet service more accessible and affordable. “OTI is proud to support this bill, which would make internet service more accessible and affordable during COVID-19 and beyond,” Joshua Stager said in a statement.

OTI and seven partners called on the Federal Communications Commission to provide support for unlimited talk and texting for recipients of its Lifeline program subsidy. Unlimited voice minutes and texting are much needed for Lifeline subscribers, particularly as many people in marginalized and impacted communities currently fighting COVID-19 are doing so without the communications services they require.

OTI and partners filed reply comments with the FCC reiterating the importance of the Commission’s 2015 Open Internet Order to protect public safety and provide broadband service to low-income consumers, goals that have become even more important during the pandemic.

Claire Park wrote about how community and tribal broadband networks “offer a much-needed opportunity to expand and improve internet access across the country,” highlighting how, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people need internet access to work, receive government services, and continue their education online more than ever.

OTI welcomes the Heroes Act, a comprehensive bill that would address many urgent issues relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, including internet connectivity.

OTI's Nat Meysenburg and Claire Park wrote for Slate Future Tense about ways to securely share home Wi-Fi networks with neighbors during the pandemic.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved a report that concludes broadband internet service “is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.” These conclusions run counter to the recommendations that OTI filed last year, which urged the FCC to include affordability in its analysis and to avoid the same flawed data sets that have skewed prior FCC reports on this subject. The report also "fails to grasp that the pandemic has undeniably raised the bar for what 'reasonable' broadband looks like.

OTI signed onto a letter with Communications Workers of America (CWA), the Rural Wireless Association, NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association, the American Economic Liberties Project, and Free Press Action calling on Congress to make sure funds from stimulus bills tailored to bring relief in the midst of COVID-19 are not used by T-Mobile to fulfill commitments it made to regulators in seeking approval of its merger with Sprint.

OTI and Common Cause filed comments with the FCC criticizing the agency for ignoring the critical public safety impacts of its 2017 net neutrality repeal. The comments also condemned the FCC for rejecting a request from first responders in New York and California who asked for more time to file comments on the public safety impacts of net neutrality in light of the COVID-19 pandemic that has overwhelmed their localities.

OTI filed comments in support of firefighters and other local officials in New York and California who asked the FCC to extend a comment deadline in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency was seeking comments on how the 2017 repeal of net neutrality has impacted public safety, making the perspectives of these first responders particularly valuable.

OTI joined a coalition of partner organizations calling on the FCC and Chairman Ajit Pai to expand broadband and phone access for vulnerable Americans using programs like Lifeline.

OTI joined over 800 organizations in a letter to Congressional leadership urging a nationwide moratorium on internet, power, and water shutoffs during the pandemic.

OTI called on the FCC to use the available E-Rate budget—as much as $2.2 billion—to help students without broadband access stay connected during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OTI joined 60+ organizations calling for the FCC to ensure incarcerated people and their families are able to stay connected during the COVID-19 pandemic.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai joined Wireless Future Project Director Michael Calabrese to discuss how the FCC’s opening of the 6GHz band could help ease the home connectivity crunch that’s becoming more dire during the crisis. A panel discussion followed.

It's more important than ever to understand the state of broadband access in the U.S., particularly for rural communities that face high costs and slow speeds. This blog by OTI’s Claire Park explores the cost of connectivity in West Virginia as part of a blog series leading up to OTI’s 2020 Cost of Connectivity report.

Amir Nasr wrote about how the transition to online and other remote learning strategies “has exposed the gravity of the ‘homework gap’ that leaves millions of U.S. students without broadband access at home and at a consistent disadvantage in testing and learning.”

OTI was one of 250+ organizations calling on the FCC to provide immediate assurances for Lifeline subscribers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The letter also called on the FCC to prohibit the disconnection of Lifeline users during the crisis, and the Commission later clarified it would pause involuntary de-enrollment of Lifeline subscribers.

With millions of U.S. students trying to learn from home without adequate broadband access, the FCC should use the Universal Service Fund & E-Rate to help bridge the homework gap during the COVID-19 crisis. A version of this Slate Future Tense op-ed by OTI’s Amir Nasr also appeared on OTI’s blog.

FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mike O’Rielly joined Wireless Future Project Director Michael Calabrese to discuss the future of Wi-Fi 6 and how it can help bolster connectivity as Americans shift to staying at home. A panel discussion followed.

Christine Bannan and Andi Wilson Thompson wrote for Tech Policy Press about the proliferation of health and fitness IoT devices (which produce data which are largely not protected by U.S. health information privacy law) and how privacy legislation could fill this gap and protect consumers. They also offer advice for making informed privacy decisions when choosing health and fitness devices and apps.

Our report from K.J. Bagchi, Christine Bannan, and Raj Gambhir explores how schools and workplaces are deploying surveillance tools for health and productivity monitoring of students and employees during the pandemic. The report examines privacy concerns with these technologies, as well as how schools and workplaces can implement safeguards to protect privacy and public health.

OTI welcomed a New York law that would prevent COVID-19 mitigation efforts like contact tracing (and their resulting data) from being used by law enforcement, urging other states to follow with similar legislation to build trust in the contact tracing process.

Chris Sadler's report looks at the preexisting and new privacy concerns facing higher education institutions and students with regard to remote learning, particularly given the rapid transition to online instruction during the pandemic.

OTI's María Angel and Margerite Blase assess various state-level legislative efforts aimed at protecting data privacy and civil rights as states plan to collect sensitive data and launch digital tools to combat COVID-19.

OTI's Christine Bannan looks at three measures before Congress dedicated to protecting privacy as policymakers and public health authorities look to deploy digital tools to fight COVID-19. Only one proposal fully adheres to the principles endorsed by OTI and a group of more than 80 civil rights, labor, and consumer organizations.

This paper from OTI, New America, and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics outlines the equity, privacy, and civil liberties risks posed by digital contact tracing tools, and the safeguards that policymakers can adopt to mitigate these concerns. Authors include Koustubh "K.J." Bagchi, Christine Bannan, Sharon Bradford Franklin, Heather Hurlburt, Lauren Sarkesian, Ross Schulman, and Joshua Stager.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, New America’s Open Technology Institute, and 83 civil rights, civil liberties, labor, and consumer protection organizations today released principles to guide employers, policymakers, businesses, and public health authorities as they consider strategies to reopen American society and deploy information technologies designed specifically to monitor, track, or trace individuals in order to mitigate or respond to the COVID-19 public health crisis.

Apple and Google announced the public release of their APIs allowing Bluetooth-enabled “exposure notification” applications to move toward public release and potentially assist public health authorities in conducting contact tracing to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. While many questions remain as to the effectiveness of Bluetooth applications for this purpose, this technology is more promising than phone location information for supporting contact tracing efforts. OTI is encouraged that Apple and Google have taken a number of steps to ensure that such apps are privacy-protective. For states that are intent on moving forward with digital contact tracing, OTI urges that they should pursue Bluetooth-based apps as the preferred alternative. But there is still an urgent need for Congress and state legislatures to enact legislation to ensure that enforceable safeguards are in place.

OTI welcomes legislation to address the immediate and critical threats posed by new plans to gather personal information from millions of people as part of a pandemic response plan.

OTI calls on Senate Republicans to bolster the privacy protections in the COVID-19 Consumer Data Protection Act, including by adding precise definitions for key terms around geolocation and proximity data, and by adding critical safeguards to restrict any government use of information to public health authorities.

OTI submitted a statement for the record in this “paper hearing” on using big data to fight COVID-19. OTI argued for restrictions on data collection and use and incorporation of modern privacy-enhancing technologies, among other measures, to ensure crisis response is effective without hurting Americans’ privacy.

Chris Sadler wrote about how a cryptographic technique known as a zero-knowledge proof could allow you to provide the verification of your private information without revealing the information itself at all, observing that in the COVID-19 pandemic, zero-knowledge proofs could help keep information private “by allowing you to confirm you have valid health insurance without divulging id numbers or other personal information, or to show that your medical data is in a healthy range across a set of metrics while keeping your exact data private.”

OTI, alongside 14 other civil society groups, sent a letter to Congress calling for policymakers to ensure Americans’ data privacy is protected during any forthcoming pandemic response plans.

As we look to use data to combat COVID-19, protecting individual privacy is paramount. This report by OTI’s Chris Sadler looks at how disclosure limitation techniques can unlock data’s massive potential while protecting personal privacy.

Created by Spandi Singh and Leila Doty, our tool tracks the content of online platform transparency reports over time as companies add (or subtract) reporting areas and metrics. As of April, 2021, the tool tracks whether and to what extent platforms are reporting granular data around COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation.

Spandana Singh wrote about how, in September 2021, Facebook became the first major internet platform to release a comprehensive set of policies related to its algorithmic ranking and recommendation of content. However, according to Singh, Facebook still has yet to provide much data to demonstrate that its efforts to reduce the distribution of certain content, such as COVID-19 misinformation and election disinformation, has “actually succeeded in preventing the consumption of this content and in decreasing the harmful effects of such content on their services.”

Spandana Singh wrote for New America's Calamity as Catalyst project about the online spread of disinformation and misinformation and its offline consequences during the pandemic.

Spandi Singh wrote about the lack of transparency from platforms around COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation. While companies assure the public they are taking actions to combat harmful content, Singh outlines how a lack of information about platforms' efforts and their results makes it difficult, if not impossible, for the public to evaluate the success of these efforts and hold companies accountable.

OTI submitted a statement for the record in a House Energy & Commerce Committee hearing (entitled “Disinformation Nation: Social Media's Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation”) held on March 25, 2021, noting how “we have seen the real world impact of online disinformation and misinformation” over the course of a year spent living through a pandemic.

On December 14, 2020, OTI told the Federal Trade Commission that its proposed consent agreement with Zoom was insufficient to address how the company deceived millions of users into believing that their video calls were more private and secure than they actually were. “We are now relying even more heavily on video chat, so the privacy encrypted communications provide is more important than ever,” Andi Wilson Thompson said in a statement.

Christine Bannan and Margerite Blase wrote about how untethered machine learning and other algorithmic tools can lead to privacy and civil rights harms, observing how Black and Brown communities are disproportionately impacted by both these algorithmic harms and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lauren Sarkesian and Spandana Singh wrote about how the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s September 2020 final rule on the Fair Housing Act’s disparate impact standard decimated the longstanding protection against discrimination, noting that this decision would further worsen the disproprotionate health and economic effects that the pandemic has had on minorities.

Christine Bannan and Margerite Blase wrote about how internet platforms were addressing election and voter suppression-related misinformation and disinformation as the COVID-19 pandemic shaped how and where people were voting in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

In light of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce and the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology’s joint hearing on June 24, 2020—which addressed the issue of widespread misinformation and disinformation on social media websites, particularly around voting and COVID-19 health information—OTI submitted a statement for the record that recommended actions for Congress and companies to take to provide greater transparency and accountability around their efforts to combat misinformation and disinformation.

Ross Schulman explains why the new exposure notification tool from Apple and Google is "interoperable," and why the companies may be eager to highlight this collaborative approach at a time when regulators are expressing interest in interoperability as a component of competition in the tech space.

Platforms need to do more to provide transparency and accountability around how these initiatives are being implemented and how they are impacting users and their online expression.

This report provides an overview of how various internet platforms are individually addressing the rapid spread of COVID-19-related misinformation and disinformation on their services, and offers recommendations on how these platforms can improve the efficacy of their efforts and also provide greater transparency to their users and the public. Further, the report includes recommendations on how U.S. policymakers can encourage further accountability and support efforts to combat the spread of misinformation and disinformation during this time.

On May 28, 2020, the White House issued an executive order that purported to prevent online censorship, but was actually an unconstitutional effort to pressure online platforms into censoring free expression, even threatening to cease federal agency spending on advertising and marketing paid to online platforms, despite the CDC’s need to get the word out about public health updates regarding COVID-19.

OTI's Spandana Singh wrote for VentureBeat about the free expression risks posed by the increased use of automated content moderation during lockdown.

With the pandemic disrupting healthcare, tech, and more, transparency from these industries is increasingly important. This report by OTI’s Spandana Singh examines how transparency reporting best practices across industries, and explains how companies and consumers benefit from increased accountability.

Internet platforms are scrambling to stop the spread of pandemic-related misinformation, disinformation, and manipulative advertising. This report from Spandana Signh looks at how video and e-commerce platforms use recommendation systems to shape user experiences. This is part of our series on how platforms use algorithms to influence the content we see and engage with online.

Internet platforms are scrambling to stop the spread of pandemic-related misinformation, disinformation, and manipulative advertising. This report from Spandana Singh explores how internet platforms use AI to target and deliver ads. This is part of our series on how platforms use algorithms to influence the content we see and engage with online.

In August 2020, Senators Merkley (D-Ore.) and Sanders (D-Vt.) introduced the National Biometric Information Privacy Act, which would require businesses to obtain consumers’ opt-in consent before collecting, sharing, or otherwise using their biometric data, require companies to minimize and delete biometric data regularly, and limit the collection of this sensitive personal information to valid business purposes. ​​“As facial recognition becomes more prevalent in commercial spaces, private companies devise and deploy pandemic response tools, and some companies even monetize our sensitive biometric data, safeguards are badly needed,” Lauren Sarkesian said in a statement.

This webinar will explore what role contact tracing apps can play in the fight against the pandemic, as well as the public health, privacy, and equity issues involved. Experts from the tech industry, public health, policy making, and civil society will help in breaking down why people are looking to these apps to aid pandemic response planning and why decentralized Bluetooth apps — which still have many limitations — are better from both a public health perspective and a privacy perspective than permitting the government to collect cellphone location information.

OTI senior policy counsel Lauren Sarkesian penned an article in Just Security raising concerns with proposals for app-enabled COVID-19 contact tracing and highlighted what these apps would need first in order to be helpful: mass testing, robust privacy safeguards, and an understanding of whom they leave out.

Governments are seeking location data to help fight COVID-19, but we don’t have to trade our privacy for public health. This piece in Slate’s Future Tense by OTI’s Sharon Bradford Franklin explores how we can reduce privacy risks by focusing on the data that would actually help public health authorities.

OTI joined 100+ organizations in calling on governments not to use the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to increase digital surveillance of citizens. The letter called on governments to use data only in ways that respect human rights and privacy.

Millions of American homes are transforming into remote offices and schools, increasing reliance on internet-connected devices, video conferencing software, and more. This event will explore these new privacy and security risks and explain how consumers can protect themselves.

On October 5, 2020, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced an October 27 vote to reaffirm the 2017 repeal of net neutrality. “There's simply too much at stake during a pandemic that millions of people are suffering through without internet access,” Joshua Stager said in a statement. “Instead of tackling this crisis, Pai appears to be dithering with yet another gift to the telecom industry.”

Pronoma Debnath wrote about how many apps still place the onus on the user to complete certain steps before their communications are fully encrypted, noting how the pandemic has led people to use video calls in place of many important interactions that previously would have taken place in person, making end-to-end encryption for video call services—as once misleadingly claimed by Zoom—all the more crucial.

On November 19, 2020, Google announced the initial roll out of end-to-end encryption for beta users of the Google Messages app. As Nat Meysenberg and Andi Wilson Thompson wrote, end-to-end encryption is particularly important now, as “the current global pandemic means that many more conversations cannot take place in person.”

A list of comments, coalition work, and other legislative and/or regulatory filings contributed by OTI in 2021, including a number of calls for COVID-19 relief.

Sarah Morris introduced this landing page by writing about the importance of access to affordable and reliable broadband, individual privacy, and open and secure technologies, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. “While technology can play an important role in managing the pandemic, we need sound policies in place to ensure equitable access to an internet and digital technologies that are accessible, secure, and privacy-protecting,” Morris wrote.

A list of comments, coalition work, and other legislative and/or regulatory filings contributed by OTI in 2020, including a number of calls for COVID-19 relief.