‘Our understanding is grey’: Cambridge Analytica whistleblower on COVIDSafe app

Brittany Kaiser blew the whistle on her former employer, Cambridge Analytica, after it was found to have harvested the personal data of millions of people’s Facebook profiles without their consent back in 2018.

Speaking about the government’s COVIDSafe app in Verizon Media’s Identity Decoded webinar on Thursday, Kaiser has said people ‘shouldn’t assume’ contact tracing apps are for the greater good.

Around 5 million Australians have downloaded the COVIDSafe tracing app, with the government urging at least 5 million more to do so for its use to be effective.

The government revealed the tracing app would store data with tech giant Amazon, with early reports suggesting this contract could mean Australian data would be made obtainable by US law enforcement under US legislation.

• Also read: Telstra charges customer $30 to download COVIDSafe app

• Also read: Major Sydney council forces staff to download COVIDSafe app

While the government later refuted this could happen, Kaiser said without knowing what will happen to our data afterwards, we shouldn’t be too quick to hand it over.

“I haven't been able to read all of the terms and conditions of all of these apps…but from what I understand there's really a different approach in every single country about how the data is collected, how it's being used, and our understanding of what that back-end compliances are is pretty grey,” she told the webinar.

In the US, a bill is being proposed for data protection in specific cases, like the coronavirus contact tracing apps, and Kaiser urged all countries to develop their own guidelines.

“There needs to be guidelines on who’s going to get access to that data, how long is it going to be held, and what is it going to be used for,” Kaiser said.

“Is it going to be deleted after it’s used for the pandemic, or is it going to be used for other cases? Who are the public and private partners of the governments that are getting access to these datasets?”

These questions, Kaiser said, have not yet been transparently answered.

“And I think we should be demanding them to be asked.”

When asked whether Kaiser herself would download the US equivalent of the COVIDSafe app, she said the decision would lie in the terms and conditions of the app.

“[When it’s released] I'll be able to make my informed consensual decision if I want to take part in that,” Kaiser said.

“But I think what we all need to remember is that during the time of crisis, both governments and companies can decide to ask us to give up some fundamental rights and freedoms in order to protect us from something temporarily.

“So if we don't understand what we are giving up, I don't think that we should be so keen to assume that using these apps is for the greater good.”

What can we do to protect our data?

Reading the terms and conditions of each and every app you download will allow you to make a more informed decision as to whether you want to hand your data over to that particular institution, Kaiser said.

“You've probably given away rights to your photos, videos, contacts, live location data after app data that you're producing and other applications,” Kaiser said.

“And, you don't know who those developers are, where their companies are based, what their intentions are or that they have backing on how that data is going to be used.

“So I would say if none of you have ever read the terms and conditions, even if they're quite long look at the app that you probably use most often do yourself a favour try to read those terms, and if they make you feel uncomfortable, think about what that means.”

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