A Delicate Balance: Tracking the COVID-19 Pandemic without Betraying Consumer Trust
Where I live, just across the bay from San Francisco, most companies are settling into their eighth week of remote work. We’re finding a new rhythm, we’ve adapted to our new routines, and the desire for interaction with others, stitched so deeply into our DNA, hasn’t gone wholly unsatisfied. Mostly, however, we just want to get back to life as we once knew it. A life filled with bookstores and baseball games, hugs and handshakes. A life filled with thriving small businesses, low unemployment levels, and classrooms filled with children counting down the minutes to recess. Wouldn’t that be nice? What would you give just to get back to that “normal” that was so easy to take for granted?
That’s the billion-dollar question: What would you give up? Life’s little luxuries? Absolutely. Everyday conveniences? You can have them all.
Would you give up your data? Your privacy? How much of it?
… All of it?
What we’re willing to share in terms of personal data may hold the answer to how quickly we can crest this pandemic. Someday, hopefully not far beyond the horizon, science will reduce COVID-19 to a seasonal annoyance. It may take more time than we’d prefer, but this waking nightmare won’t last forever. Indeed, that’s the endgame: Bury the…
