"Asia as a region risks sleep-walking into serious privacy breaches if there isn't transparency when it comes to data use with respect to COVID-19 surveillance measures," said Sofia Nazalya, a human rights analyst at Verisk Maplecroft. The pandemic has enabled authorities from China to Russia to increase surveillance and clamp down on free speech, digital rights experts say. Some have stepped up surveillance using artificial intelligence and big data, alarming human rights activists and data privacy experts. Asian countries often lack adequate oversight of mass surveillance systems and legislation to protect privacy, data rights advocates say. "(But) in terms of the government looking at data privacy, there needs to be a transparency in how data is used, stored, who has access to your private data."

Source: bd News24 September 30, 2020 22:52 UTC