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Report: Workplace Coronavirus Tracing Apps Institute Dystopian Mass Surveillance by Default
Microsoft, UnitedHealth Apps Pose Risks to Worker Privacy, Bypass HIPAA Requirements
WASHINGTON
More than 50 apps, wearables and other technologies marketed as workplace surveillance tools to combat COVID-19 have been released since the pandemic began, and they pose an alarming threat to worker privacy, a new report from Public Citizen found. These new surveillance and contact tracing technologies institute intrusive mass surveillance, forcing workers to either accede to dystopian levels of surveillance or risk losing their jobs.
"The default setting of most workplace surveillance apps is mass surveillance by design," warned Burcu Kilic, digital rights program director for Public Citizen and author of the report. "The speed at which these new privacy-shredding technologies have been unleashed is alarming, especially given that none of them have been proven to be effective at mitigating the spread of COVID-19."
The report found that these new technologies are currently being used by at least 32 employers to track at least 340,000 workers, and they are available to as many as 14,000 additional employers with nearly 4 million additional workers. These technologies are putting workers' rights in jeopardy by tracking, monitoring and collecting personal data - including health data - and sharing it with employers, creating new cybersecurity risks.
For example, Microsoft and UnitedHealth Group's ProtectWell app sends COVID-19 diagnostic test results directly to the employer, bypassing the worker. Other apps don't treat workers' data as being subject to the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), meaning the data does not have to be securely handled and protected in accordance with HIPAA's health information privacy provisions.
"In a work setting, where activities are governed by a contractual or power relationship, many workers must either accept the new high-tech workplace surveillance or risk losing their jobs," the report reads. "Without sufficient government regulation and guidelines, employers using these technologies are invading workers' privacy to varying degrees."
The report also describes what the apps are and how they work, highlighting specific privacy concerns. It concludes with a checklist of best practices for employers as they consider whether to introduce surveillance technologies into their workplaces.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
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'Another Corrupt Pardon': Trump Pardons Reality TV Stars Convicted of Tax Evasion and Bank Fraud
"It appears Trump is no longer concerned about appearances or the pretense of propriety. He's corrupting the pardon process," wrote one MSNBC political contributor on Tuesday.
May 28, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday reportedly signed full pardons for Todd and Julie Chrisley, reality TV stars known for the program "Chrisley Knows Best," who were convicted in 2022 of evading taxes and financial fraud to prop up their luxurious lifestyles.
Todd and Julie Chrisley were sentenced to 12 and seven years in federal prison, respectively, in 2022. The charges brought against them included conspiring to defraud banks in the Atlanta area in order to get ahold of over $36 million in personal loans. "The Chrisleys spent the money on luxury cars, designer clothes, real estate, and travel—and used new fraudulent loans to pay back old ones," according to a 2022 release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia. Both of the Chrisleys have maintained their innocence, according to CNN.
Citing an unnamed White House official, CNNreported Wednesday that Trump has signed pardons for them, though as of mid-day the pardons are still not listed on the Department of Justice's website.
On Tuesday, Trump's communications adviser, Margo Martin, posted a video on X that showed Trump making a phone call to the Chrisleys' daughter, Savannah Chrisley, letting her know of his plans to grant pardons for her parents. In the video, Trump says that "it's a great thing because your parents are going to be free and clean, and hopefully we can do it by tomorrow."
Reacting to the news about the Chrisleys, Steve Benen, an MSNBC political contributor and producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," argued on Wednesday that in his first term, Trump "wielded his pardon power as a corrupt weapon," but many of his eye-brow raising pardon actions took place after he lost in the 2020 election.
"But as his second term gets underway, it appears Trump is no longer concerned about appearances or the pretense of propriety. He's corrupting the pardon process; he knows that he's corrupting the pardon process; he knows that we know that he's corrupting the pardon process; and he's doing it anyway," Benen wrote. "The president seems eager to act with impunity, confident in the knowledge that a Republican-led Congress will shrug its shoulders with indifference."
The X account Republicans against Trump blasted the move on Tuesday, calling it "another corrupt pardon."
Trump began his second term with multiple high-profile clemency actions, including issuing pardons and commutations for over 1,500 rioters convicted in connection to the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol and pardoning Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.
More recently, Trump in April pardoned Florida healthcare executive Paul Walczak, who was recently sentenced to over a year in prison stemming from tax crimes that he pleaded guilty to.
In Walczak's pardon application, submitted last fall, he argued that his criminal prosecution was motivated more by his mother's support of Trump, including her financial support for Trump's campaigns, rather than the crimes he had admitted to, according to The New York Times. The outlet also reported that Walczak's mother, Elizabeth Fago, attended a fundraiser at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club last month that was a $1-million-per-person dinner. Weeks later, Trump pardoned Walczak.
Savannah Chrisley has spoken publicly to highlight her parents' case.
Savannah Chrisley spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2024 and suggested that her parents were targeted because prosecutors had some sort of political agenda. "My family was persecuted by rogue prosecutors in Fulton County due to our public profile—I know, Fulton County, they know how to do it, don't they—due to our public profile and conservative beliefs," Chrisley said. According to The Washington Post, she also went to the White House in February to make the case for their pardons.
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IDF Opens Fire on Starving Palestinians at Privatized Food Distribution Site
The delivery hub was run by the Israel- and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which aid agencies have boycotted.
May 28, 2025
After walking an average of 9.3 miles to an aid distribution hub set up by the U.S.- and Israel-backed private foundation that Israel has allowed to provide humanitarian relief in Gaza, Palestinians on Tuesday faced gunfire from Israeli troops at the site, with at least one person killed and 48 wounded—and rights groups' worst fears about the aid scheme confirmed.
The first day of operations for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has enlisted private U.S. security contractors to help with aid distribution in southern Gaza, came 11 weeks into Israel's total blockade on humanitarian aid.
The blockade has pushed the enclave toward famine and resulted in the entire population facing "high levels of acute food insecurity," according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
With thousands of Palestinian children facing malnutrition and their parents left without any way to help them in recent weeks, crowds of people broke through fencing and rushed toward the distribution site on Tuesday.
Amid the chaotic scene, an Associated Press journalist reported hearing Israeli tank and gun fire and seeing flares from a military helicopter.
Israel has said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would not be involved in GHF operations, but told the AP that it had fired "warning shots."
It was not clear whether the reported casualties were the result of IDF gunfire or private contractors working with GHF, which said its contractors "fell back" before returning to the site and resuming aid operations.
Ajith Sunghay, head of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in the occupied Palestinian territories, said Wednesday that the IDF caused the casualties.
"It is through gunshots," Sunghay told reporters in Geneva. "We are trying to confirm what has happened to them in the sense of seriousness [of the injuries]. What we know is that it was shooting from the IDF."
He said the number of injuries and deaths at the distribution point could increase as experts continue gathering information, and noted that Israeli troops have fired on Palestinians who were retrieving humanitarian aid before.
"From January to March 2024, our office has documented 26 incidents where the Israel Defense Forces fired shots while people were collecting humanitarian aid, causing casualties at Al Kuwaiti roundabout and Al Naburasi roundabout," Sunghay toldUN News.
The U.N. and other humanitarian agencies have refused to work with GHF, saying its plan to distribute aid only at four distribution points in southern Gaza—which Palestinians must travel to and from with aid boxes weighing up to 44 pounds—will forcibly displace people who have already been forced to leave their homes and place them in harm's way.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce would not answer questions about whether the Palestinians who travel south for aid would be able to return to their homes or if the operation would expand to other parts of Gaza to reach more starving civilians, many of whom are injured and can't travel easily to distribution points.
Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the U.N.—which has years of experience providing relief in Gaza—has long been prepared to provide aid to people across the enclave but has been prevented from doing so by Israel's blockade.
"Right now, nearly 180,000 pallets of food and other life-saving aid stand ready to enter Gaza, the hungriest place on earth," he told UN News. "The supplies have already been paid for by the world's donors. It is cleared for customs, approved, and ready to move. We can get the aid in—immediately, at scale, and for as long as necessary."
Jake Wood, a former U.S. marine who was appointed executive director of GHF, resigned this week, saying the Geneva-based group's plan for distributing aid violated the "humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence."
The Washington Postreported Tuesday that the foundation's chief operating officer, David Burke, also resigned. A former U.S. Agency for International Development official has stepped in as interim executive director.
GHF said Wednesday that it was continuing operations, providing food boxes that are expected to feed "5.5 people for 3.5 days, totaling 840,262 meals."
Emma DeSouza, founder of Civic Initiative, reported that the boxes only contain "two bags of flour, some dry pasta, lentils, and biscuits."
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, said that "the humanitarian community in Gaza, including UNRWA, is ready" to provide aid safely and effectively to Palestinians.
"We already have an aid distribution system that is fit for purpose," Lazzarini said. "We have the experience and expertise to reach people in need. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking towards famine, so humanitarian [work] must be allowed to do its life-saving work now."
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'When The Hague Is Against Me, I Know I'm on the Right Path,' Says Accused Israeli War Criminal Ben-Gvir
"No arrest warrant of any kind will deter me," said far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
May 28, 2025
Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir responded proudly Wednesday to reports that the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court was considering arrest warrants against him and fellow extremist minister Bezalel Smotrich over their roles in expanding illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Ben-Gvir, who has openly fought efforts to deliver aid to starving Palestinians and worked to prevent progress toward a durable cease-fire, wrote in a social media post that "when The Hague is against me, I know I'm on the right path"—suggesting he would view an arrest warrant from the ICC as a badge of honor.
"I have one clear message to the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague," he wrote. "No arrest warrant of any kind will deter me from continuing to work for the people of Israel and the Land of Israel. The prosecutor in The Hague does not scare me."
The Israeli minister's post came after The Wall Street Journalreported that ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan "was preparing to seek arrest warrants for two far-right Israeli cabinet members before he went on leave as the United Nations investigates sexual-assault allegations against him."
The Journal noted that the cases center on Ben-Gvir and Smotrich's "roles in expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank." Both ministers live in West Bank settlements, which have expanded significantly since Israel began its full-scale assault on the Gaza Strip following the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023.
"A decision on whether to pursue the cases falls to Khan's two deputies, and it is unclear how they plan to proceed," the Journal reported. "ICC prosecutors have been weighing whether Smotrich and Ben-Gvir committed war crimes by pushing construction of West Bank Jewish settlements."
Late last year, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing the pair of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
Khan decided to take leave earlier this month amid the U.N. probe of sexual assault allegations made by one of his aides. Khan has denied the accusations, which have thrown the ICC into chaos at a pivotal moment.
Journalist Alice Speri reported for Drop Site earlier this month that "the woman's accusations were far more serious than what has been revealed so far, and include what she described to colleagues as monthslong grooming, psychological coercion, and sexual advances, which eventually escalated into 'unwanted' and 'coerced' sex that lasted nearly a year and continued even after she told Khan that his conduct had left her suicidal."
Khan's alleged conduct and the resulting blowback risks compromising the ICC's work to hold Israeli officials to account for war crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territories, advocates and court officials fear.
Speri reported that "many at the court, including the alleged victim... understood the abuse allegations were political dynamite and 'a gift for Israel,' as one person put it, and they worried about how they may be used to discredit the ICC, and particularly delegitimize the case against Netanyahu, which many believed was warranted and crucial."
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