How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected consumer privacy, and what are the implications for the future of privacy and public policy? We argue that response to the outbreak has threatened privacy by reducing consumer control over the collection, sharing, and protection of some of the most sensitive types of personal information, including health and location data. Collection of these data has increased through widespread adoption of new surveillance tools to monitor and prevent contagion and enforce government-mandated lockdowns. In addition, new digital records that would not otherwise exist have been created as shelter-in-place orders have forced many consumers, including vulnerable populations, to replace offline activities with online activities. The pandemic response has further eroded privacy through governmentinitiated sharing of personal information and weaker protection of sensitive data. After elaborating on these changes, we discuss the implications for the future of privacy and public policy.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 大流行期间（和之后）的消费者隐私

COVID-19 大流行如何影响消费者隐私，对隐私和公共政策的未来有何影响？我们认为，通过减少消费者对一些最敏感的个人信息类型（包括健康和位置数据）的收集、共享和保护的控制，对疫情的反应已经威胁到隐私。通过广泛采用新的监控工具来监控和预防传染病并执行政府规定的封锁，对这些数据的收集有所增加。此外，由于居家令迫使包括弱势群体在内的许多消费者将线下活动替换为在线活动，因此创建了原本不会存在的新数字记录。大流行的应对措施通过政府发起的个人信息共享和对敏感数据的较弱保护，进一步侵蚀了隐私。在详细说明这些变化之后，我们讨论了对隐私和公共政策未来的影响。