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ABC journalist Waleed Aly has raised concerns over recent reports that police had accessed or attempted to access COVID Check-In data.

In an interview with David Speers on the ABC’s Insiders program, Aly arraigned the police actions, stating that they were outside the purview of the emergency measures.

According to news reports, police have used – or attempted to use – the data obtained via COVID-19 sign-in codes to solve various crimes.

In June, Queensland Police were given a warrant enabling them to access the Check In QLD app after a police-issued firearm was stolen.

Furthermore, police succeeded in gaining access to the information on at least five other occasions, while Victorian police made three unsuccessfully attempts to do the same.

Since then, Western Australia has banned police from access to QR code information, while the ACT is considering similar measures.

This is a De Facto Surveillance System

In the Insiders interview on Sunday, Speers observed that some would consider the police actions reasonable. Nonetheless, Aly was quick to respond:

“Yes, and I would say some would be wrong.”

Firstly, according to Aly, the fact that police had gained access to the data constituted a disincentive for people to participate in the QR Code sign-in process.

“This is … a de facto surveillance system … It’s a contact tracing tool, and the minute you expand it beyond contact tracing what you do is you create a disincentive for some people … to use it because they are worried it will be misused because it is now being used for purposes other than contact tracing, so other than that for which it is required.” (Aly)

Interestingly, he highlighted the international reaction to similar activities:

“Even in Singapore, the police tried to do this and there was uproar in Singapore, which is a country which is not averse to a heavy state presence…” (Aly)

Emergency Measures Should Not Bleed into Routine Business

Secondly, Aly pointed out what he called the ‘philosophical problem’. “These are emergency measures,” he emphasised.

“…the whole point of emergency measures is that they do not get used and they do not bleed into routine business, and, whatever you think about the police, what they were using it for was routine business.” (Aly)

Recently, other organisations and individuals have spoken out against what is seen by many as a ‘breach of trust’.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner wrote:

“personal information collected for contact-tracing purposes should not be used for other purposes such as law enforcement or even direct marketing”.

At the federal level, Senator James Paterson, the chair of the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, urged states to limit the data’s use to pandemic response issues.

“If regular state police access to check-in data undermines trust and confidence in their apps it will be entirely self-defeating,” he explained.

“We do not need to make the task of contact tracers any harder by discouraging people from using the apps.” (Paterson)

Harmony between the likes of Senator Paterson and Waleed Aly is rare. Nevertheless, on this issue, it seems that they firmly agree. According to both, continued police use of the COVID check-in data could have serious negative repercussions for the pandemic response.

Devotional Reflection: Our Freedom is From God

As Christians, we need to be constantly vigilant over the freedoms that we enjoy in this nation. This is for our own sake, but, more importantly, for the sake of our twenty-four million neighbours.

Paul wrote to Timothy telling him to pray for those in authority.

Why?

So that we may live a quiet and dignified life, bringing glory to God and showing Him to the world (1 Timothy 2:1-3). The same applies to us today: anything that may hinder us from leading the life God desires for us should be called out.

Ultimately, we need to remember that, as Kurt so eloquently put it, true freedom comes from God.

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Image by ThisIsEngineering on Pexels. Secondary image by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.