The Smartphone Pandemic: Mobile technologies and data in the COVID-19 response (SMARTCOVID)

The corona pandemic is the first pandemic in the smartphone era. New technologies such as infection-tracing apps and location data from mobile phones have been used to model, observe and control the pandemic. The use of such technology has received a lot of attention and led to major discussions around digital surveillance and privacy, while at the same time it has given hope that the technology can help us end the pandemic. The "Smartphone Pandemic" project has researched the social, political and ethical consequences of the use of smartphone technology to combat the corona pandemic, focusing on how it changes structures, power and norms in public health. The project has aimed to strengthen the knowledge base on digitization in public health during a pandemic and to ensure ethical and fair use of new technology. Based on case studies in various countries (Sierra Leone, Myanmar, Japan, Taiwan, Great Britain and Norway), we have analyzed how health authorities have adopted such technology, and mapped how various institutions attempt to manage the use of smartphone technologies and digital health data in times of crisis . The project has also investigated how the experiences with the use of mobile data in Sierra Leone and Myanmar during previous disease outbreaks were used in Norway during the corona pandemic. Increased power for the technology companies An important research result from the project is that the pandemic has led to new forms of collaboration between large technology companies and public health authorities that challenge established norms in public health and digital sovereignty. Such collaborations have focused on digital infection tracking, epidemiological modelling, and communication through social media and chatbots to deal with an "infodemic" of more or less reliable information about the new coronavirus. We have studied how the digital response to the corona pandemic shows that technology companies have gained increasing power in public health. This involves the promotion of technological solutions that may seem attractive to politicians, but which lack documentation on whether they are effective and what kind of social and political consequences they may have. Infection tracking apps did not have the desired effect The research results show how the use of digital infection tracking and other digital solutions as political tools depends on contextual factors, such as how authorities in different countries relate to public health services and whether they have an optimistic view of technology. An important finding across the various case studies is that apps designed to locate and trace infections have a limited effect on the spread of infection and have not solved management challenges related to health and pandemics. Digital solutions have also failed to help those most at risk of falling ill from the coronavirus. Both such interventions and digital solutions aimed at opening up society after the corona pandemic (e.g. digital vaccine certificates) may risk shifting the focus away from traditional public health measures and undermining attempts to equalize social inequalities in health. Ethical considerations must be included in pandemic management The project has highlighted how technological solutions were implemented during the pandemic despite weak or missing documentation and regulation. The technologies were often based on previous experimentation in low-income countries that rarely benefited the citizens of those countries. For example, the models Telenor and the Institute of Public Health used to track the spread of infection in Norway were developed in Myanmar and Bangladesh before the pandemic. The myriad ethical issues related to smartphone technology used during the pandemic-including privacy, curtailment of civil rights, and the setting of health policy by a technological elite-highlight the need to involve ethicists in pandemic management and preparedness. Challenging uncritical techno-optimism The research results are valuable information for governments and provide insight into which smartphone technology may be successful and which are most likely to fail. The results challenge uncritical techno-optimism in pandemic management and underline the importance of sustained investments in public health and pandemic preparedness that equalize social inequalities and prioritize those at greatest risk of infection and disease during pandemics. The project has strengthened interdisciplinary and international collaboration between researchers from anthropology, political science and international relations, and political philosophy, and has contributed to a growing field of critical social science research on digital technologies and data within pandemic management and preparedness. The project has worked actively to communicate the research results and has published several academic articles and commentaries, and given presentations at conferences. A wider audience has also been reached by writing comments and chronicles in both Norwegian and international media, participating in webinars and podcasts, and giving interviews.