One of the most worrying aspects of the COVID pandemic was the “locking down” of huge swathes of the global population, for the general security of the population, for “their own good”. When China first responded to the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan by incarcerating the whole of the city, it was an effective but shocking response. Many commentators opined that China might be able to do that, but in countries where freedoms of movement and assembly were societal cornerstones, surely that wouldn’t be possible. However, “lockdowns” quickly spread, and the ability of China to control its population through what amounted to mass incarceration was lauded as highly efficient, evidencing the superiority of an autocratic system in times of crisis.
Soon lockdowns were complemented by track and trace technologies that not only allowed, but mandated unprecedented invasions of privacy, justifying enormous data transfer between individuals and the government and private sector contractors.
