Accelerating curve of anxiousness: How a governmental quarantine-app feeds society with bugs

Abstract

Daily, media reports on countries eagerly introducing advanced surveillance technology to counter the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g. Byers 2020, Doffman 2020; Holmes 2020, Stojanovski 2020). The critics and commentators focus – rightly – on multifaceted dangers lurking behind the technological optimism, which drive our hopes of defeating the pandemic (e.g. Cahn and Veiszlemlein 2020; Ikeda 2020; Swire 2020). Majority of the critical voices concerns the future risks, and the (unintended) consequences of the implemented products, which do their (intended) job. But some technological interventions not only have unintended consequences, they simply do not work. A case in point: a Polish bugged app. Considering this app, I invite the readers to a discussion about how a bugged app may impact social relations, citizen’s wellbeing and sense of (in)security in the already disturbed political and health context.