Hello and welcome back to the blog. Today’s post includes a refinement of last week's ER Diagram modeling risk of contracting COVID. I have made two diagrams one being a physical representation, including more detailed explanation of data types and relationships between entities. The other diagram is a conceptual diagram which is more reader friendly and provides the “big picture” of how all entities relate to each other. In addition to the diagrams and supporting screencast explanation, I will also be discussing my thoughts on a recent development in Michigan involving the mandated use of a location tracking app on a college campus. The app is designed to track where students go and work to limit and track exposure. I will be discussing just how ethical a practice like this is, and whether data like this should be used in this manor.
After reading the article by Zach Whittaker, I believe a practice like this is intrusive on the privacy of the students who attend this school. When these students made the choice to go to college, granted it is a private school, they were not signing up to be constantly tracked by the university. I think this type of monitoring is not necessary. The article discusses how students are not permitted to leave the “bubble” of campus and that they would face punishments if doing so. In my opinion this violates the students rights and privacy. Being a student myself I can say that there are so many reasons why someone would need to leave campus. Not being allowed to would be a serious restriction.
Furthermore, personally I would not accept these restrictions at my school. I believe it should be up to the people how they choose to social distance, and it should not be mandated by authorities. I would feel creeped out knowing that the university can always see where I am and have to constantly worry about using the app.
I think privacy of data should be more important than safety. Data privacy can be a very slippery slope, and if we as citizens give too much leeway, it could become a much more serious issue than just a college campus. Safety should be up to individuals, with help from authorities. It is not fair to the students that their location is given out at all times.
A more ethical way of solving this issue would be making this program happen on an opt in basis. I am in no way saying that this practice would be ineffective, I just do not believe it should be forced upon the students. If students want to be involved in limiting exposure in this manner, they should be given that choice. Looking at another possible solution, I think that an app with reward for being safe in limiting exposure would work well. Washing hands and keeping your distance are obviously good practices to limit exposure so perhaps if a student gets a notification to wash their hands and they do so, they could get extra meal points. This solution might not be as effective as direct access to students' location, however it is clearly more ethical.
Physical Diagram:
Conceptual Diagram:
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