Author: Alberto Giubilini, Helen Kennedy
Publisher: The Conversation
Publication Year: 2021
Summary: The following article talks about vaccine passports, a category of tracking tools that verify that someone has received the COVID vaccine and therefore is allowed to enter certain places or has greater freedom of movement because they are generally less dangerous to be around. On the flip side, vaccine passports can be seen as a coercive tool that restricts the freedom of individuals to make personal decisions about getting a vaccine. As a data scientist, it is crucial to consider the freedoms and privacy of people that an organization or a product may be interacting with. For example, suppose the only way to enforce vaccine passports is through the tracking of everyone, in which case, it might be something that is not worth implementing since the ethical cost is greater than the potential benefit.