Solidarity as a Regulatory Principle for Digital Technologies Used in the Pandemic Response (Preprint)

Abstract

UNSTRUCTURED In addition to existing epidemiological methods, the on-going COVID-19 pandemic requires effective approaches for controlling the disease spread. The use of digital technologies has been discussed in this context, and digital contact tracing technology (DCTT) and vaccine passport are representative examples of such technologies. Ethical discussions on the application of these technologies have noted privacy breach and undermining social trust as concerns, arguing that these two aspects should be balanced with the public benefits of technology application. Discussions of digital technologies, including DCTT, as a pandemic response have called for a new perspective on existing public health ethics. This viewpoint paper proposes that applying solidarity as a regulatory principle to digital technologies can offer ways to pursue privacy and public interest as complementary instead of competitive values. Existing studies and discussions of digital technologies in the COVID-19 context were explored, particularly those focusing on the utilization and ethical aspects of DCTT. The development of solidarity in biomedical ethics and its application to public health ethics were also considered. The conclusion was reached that the acceptability of DCTT can increase when privacy is secured, which results in increased overall effectiveness of the technology. This can be achieved by applying solidarity as a regulatory principle, which requires individuals to participate, while empowering the privacy and social trust of participating individuals at the national level. Thus, this paper presents an ethical approach based on the principle of solidarity that reciprocates the interests of individuals and the collective instead of making them compete. This approach is expected to pave the way for an extended framework for both the pandemic response and digital approaches in public health that empower privacy and social trust.