IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2021 - 70

Feature
up being used in the same manner as " globalization "
and " neoliberalism " -a shorthand explanation
for everything that is wrong-this narrative risks
obscuring both the reasons for problems and their
solutions [43]. The lack of adequate regulation of
transnational actors is potentially a critical threat to
liberal democracies-but this was not why Smittestopp
failed the way it did.
The second line of contention is related to the
worldwide normalization of attacks on human
rights actors. For a country that prides itself of
being a humanitarian superpower and at the vanguard
of human rights protection, the domestic
Norwegian human rights sector was curiously silent
with respect to the government's COVID-19 efforts
and Smittestopp, in particular. During 2020, human
rights violations and problems appeared to be
something largely happening-and requiring the
attention and intervention of Norwegian actors-
elsewhere. When international actors entered the
ranks of Smittestopp-critics, it caused a brawl. Simula
(which is a government entity) tussled with
Amnesty International, suggesting that the organization
was not upfront about its criticism when
the organization initially made contact with the
government and called the report from June 2020
for " absolute trash, " alleging that it was a report
of " exceptionally low quality " [44], [45], and that
Amnesty was abusing their position and power,
providing poorly documented conclusions. Simula
also argued that Amnesty was behaving in an
unprofessional manner, by letting itself be manipulated
by activists [46]. For the Norwegian context,
this is extraordinarily harsh.
Third, who is blamed is indicative of a broader
development, namely the rapidly rising political
importance and influence of data protection frameworks
and the public discourse on privacy. In the
Smittestopp context, one part of the state (the health
authorities) blamed another (the DPA) for an unfolding
public fiasco: In radio and television appearances
by NIPH and the Minister of Health following
the formal cancellation of Smittestopp, the minister
of health blamed the DPA for the Smittestopp fiasco,
arguing that the solution being worked on in June
would have effective and complied with data protection
regulations [47]. It was also claimed that a
consequence of the cancellation was that the health
authorities did not get access to important COVID19
tracing data [48]. The minister and NIPH vocally
70
disagreed that the app was illegal and stated that
they would like " clearer advice " in the future. [49].
The head of the DPA retorted that it was not a lack
of advice but things the stakeholders themselves did
as well as the inability to document the utility of the
app which made it disproportionately intrusive and
thus illegal-and that the law applied, also in times
of national emergencies [50].
The fourth and final observation concerns the
imputed and actual motivations of data activists and
critics. Smittestopp represents a fairly unique example
of large swaths of the Norwegian tech sector
agreeing on the pitfalls of a digital initiative. Many
private-sector actors were interested in helping the
government with contact-tracing Spring 2020, either
pro bono or on a contractual basis. Speculating
about the motivations and actions of individuals
is easy-and difficult to disprove on an individual
basis-though this kind of tactical maneuvering can
be identified and called out on a general level. Yet,
we need to discuss whether a more institutionalized
field of data activism would be less vulnerable to this
type of criticism.
That Smittestopp's critics were eventually vindicated-combined
with the less-than-impressive
efforts by established Norwegian civil society, the
human rights sector included-means that we
should have a conversation about what civic activism
looks like and should look like in the pandemic
and post-pandemic context. Without individuals
from the private sector, there would have been no
organized opposition to this app. From early March,
individual data activists have been using the Freedom
of Information Act to painstakingly map government,
Health authorities and DPA interaction
on Smittestopp. The focus has subsequently turned
to efforts to get access to code and to data sets.
Interestingly, an NIPH official recently explained
that the lack of transparency and openness in connection
with Smittestopp had resulted in a large
volume of requests which again had required significant
resources-and that this was important
to avoid in the future [51]. This creates questions
about what new challenges the established civil
society and academia are facing-and what kind
of resources and competencies these communities
should harness, and what kind of strategies they
should device.
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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2021

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