Three US universities are working on a surveillance system to track Covid-19. The technology would be similar to the surveillance system in place in China which is used to create the Chinese Social Credit system.
University of Southern California, Emory University, and the University of Texas Health Science Center received federal funding to develop the contact tracing app. The system would track users locations in real time, their symptoms and give them a virus risk score.
Apple and Google have also announced they are working on bluetooth technology that could be used in third party apps for contact tracing.
Drug cartels have seen supply chains from China disrupted. The chemicals needed to make the synthetic drugs typically come from China and these are not making it through to the cartels in Mexico.
The price of heroin, methamphetamines and fentanyl have soared in recent weeks amid the Covid-19 crisis.
“The cartels have suffered from COVID-19 due to the inability to get the regular shipments of synthetic opioids and precursor chemicals for the massive production of meth from China,” Derek Maltz, a former special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Operations Division in New York told the press.
“The cartels have continued their production at a slower rate, but the demand seems to be increasing during these times of uncertainty in America. The shutdown of cities in China and travel in and out of China have also negatively impacted the flow of chemicals and drugs to Mexico.”
Russia is using a network of 100,00 cameras in the capital Moscow to track anyone breaking quarantine during the Coronavirus outbreak.
The cameras are controlled from a purpose-built coronavirus control centre.
Russia has created a database of images, and personal data from those with Covid-19 and this is used to monitor for anyone on the streets who should be in quarantine.
South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan have also used personal data from cell phones to track people in quarantine.