The Ethical Implications of Digital Contact Tracing for LGBTQIA+ Communities

TL;DR

This paper examines the ethical challenges digital contact tracing poses to LGBTQIA+ communities, emphasizing issues of data privacy, freedom infringement, and proposing inclusive, decentralized solutions grounded in feminist ethics.

Contribution

It introduces an intersectional feminist framework for developing inclusive, user-controlled contact tracing technology to address ethical concerns for vulnerable communities.

Findings

Digital contact tracing raises significant ethical issues for LGBTQIA+ communities.

A feminist ethics of care can guide the development of more inclusive contact tracing technologies.

Decentralized, user-controlled systems can mitigate privacy and freedom infringements.

Abstract

The onset of COVID-19 has led to the introduction of far-reaching digital interventions in the interest of public health. Among these, digital contact tracing has been proposed as a viable means of targeted control in countries across the globe, including on the African continent. This, in turn, creates significant ethical challenges for vulnerable communities, including LGBTQIA+ persons. In this research paper, we explore some of the ethical implications of digital contact tracing for the LGBTQIA+ community. We refer specifically to the digital infringement of freedoms, and ground our discussion in the discourse of data colonisation and Big Tech. We propose a critical intersectional feminism towards developing inclusive technology that is decentralised and user controlled. This approach is informed by a feminist ethics of care that emphasises multiple lived experiences.