Beware COVID-19 tracking: Emergency powers can outlive their emergencies

Mass surveillance methods pitched to save lives around the world, which permit fast, accurate COVID-19 tracking by authorities that was not possible during prior pandemics, might never go away, even after an effective COVID-19 vaccine has inoculated the world.
The COVID-19 pandemic is an extraordinary moment that has some, less-farsighted, perhaps even nefarious, officials calling for extraordinary surveillance methods. In countries with more restrictive governments and few, if any, personal fre