Gotham Gazette

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contact tracing

contact tracing

  • Surveillance and the City: Contact Tracing, the NYPD’s Newest Spy Tool?

    contact tra

    Mayor and NYPD officials (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    In recent days, city and state officials have rushed to stand up an army of contact tracers, public health officials who will reach out to every COVID-19 patient in the state, asking intimate details about every person they’ve come into contact with for the past two weeks. In the hands of public health officials, this data will save lives. But if we let this same information fall into the hands of the police, it won’t just undermine our most important rights, it will set back the efforts to combat

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