How much does your attitude to data privacy change depending on purpose?

[jmak]

What do people think about the Covid-19 tracking apps, e.g. https://covid.joinzoe.com/ run by Kings College, London?

 

How about if it was being run by Google?

 

Or the government?

 

What if instead of being used to track the spread of the epidemic, it was being used to facilitate release from lockdown?

 

And if the counter point that if you were diagnosed with the virus, it could be used to enforce isolation for individuals and their household?

 

My general stance is that I don't trust anyone with my data, but do accept that there's sometimes a trade off in prepared to make if I understand what benefit I receive. (My entirely subjective views: I let Google have quite a lot, because they're basically trying to sell me stuff and I can choose to ignore it and some of their services are very useful to me. I have resisted Facebook for years as I think they're primarily trying to carry out social engineering and generally spy - and they're sneaky about how they gather it however, I've recently given in as the rest of my family have chosen to use WhatsApp to stay in touch and it's more worth giving them my data as the price for the communication with my family.)