In recent weeks, vaccine passports are becoming a more viable pathway out of lockdown restrictions. Instead of using paper documentation, governments want to enter the digital age with vaccine passport apps. However, numerous civil liberties activists are challenging these digital implications. A passport app would require creating a digital ID that contains user’s sensitive medical information.
Containing this type of sensitive information in a vast database poses obvious issues, especially in regards to cybersecurity threats. Big Brother Watch called this splitting of society into vaccinated and unvaccinated as “health apartheid that’s incompatible with a free and democratic country”. Several ministers have also raised concerns over employers using vaccine passports apps for discriminatory purposes.
Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch UK states: ““This dangerous plan would normalise identity checks, increase state control over law-abiding citizens and create a honeypot for cybercriminals.”
iNews – Why plans for vaccine passports are raising civil liberties fears