Press Statement

Amid Dual Crises of COVID-19 Pandemic & Police Abuse, Legislators Introduce Bill to Protect Contact Tracing Data from Law Enforcement

Advocates, Public Defenders and Healthcare Providers Call for Bill’s Passage This Week As Part of Larger Slate of Police Accountability Legislation

NEW YORK – Important legislation has been introduced to ensure that contact tracing achieves its public health goals and is not weaponized against communities of color. Introduced by Senator Gustavo Rivera and Assemblymember Richard Gottfried, chairs of the Senate and Assembly Health Committees, this bill will ensure confidentiality of contact tracing data and prohibit access by law enforcement and immigration enforcement.

Civil rights, health care, and privacy advocates, public defenders, and health care providers are urging New York’s legislature to pass the bill in the coming week as part of a larger package of police accountability and racial justice legislation.

The events following the death of George Floyd have laid bare the distrust and fear of law enforcement that is felt so acutely within Black and brown communities. Allowing law enforcement to access – and weaponize – contact tracing data will disproportionately impact communities of color who have already borne the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as abusive enforcement of social distancing.

The use of contact tracing by law enforcement is already occurring in other states. In Minnesota, police claim to have used contact tracing to track protesters. This assertion alone will likely have a chilling effect on actual COVID-19 contact tracing.

In order to be effective, contact tracing requires widespread participation. If individuals fear that participating in contact tracing will expose them or their loved ones to ICE enforcement or criminalization, they will simply choose not to participate. The public health goal of contact tracing – to stem the spread of COVID-19 – thus requires legislation that prohibits law enforcement or immigration enforcement from accessing contact tracing data.

Legislators and advocates said the following:

“Contact tracing for COVID-19 is critically important for public health, but it only works if people participate,” said Assembly Health Committee Chair and bill sponsor Richard N. Gottfried. “People need to feel confident that their information will only be used for public health purposes, not as a back door for law enforcement or immigration authorities. It’s critical that we put safeguards in place right now, when the program is getting started.”

“I’m honored to have worked with Neighborhood Defender Services, Center for Community Alternatives, The Bronx Defenders, and the New York Civil Liberties Union to draft this new bill based on powerful testimony I heard at the joint legislative hearing held in May on the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on minority communities,” said State Senator Gustavo Rivera, Chair of the Senate Health Committee. “This legislation would ensure contact tracing data cannot be used for anything other than protecting the public’s health and stopping the spread of COVID-19.”

“As the past few weeks have made inescapably clear, the NYPD already has overbroad powers, and frequently turns them against Black and brown New Yorkers. The COVID-19 crisis has devastated these communities, and the NYPD has already used social distancing as an excuse to brutalize them further,” said Alice Fontier, Managing Director of Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem. “A public health response meant to respond to our neighbors’ needs amid a pandemic cannot be turned into yet another weapon in the NYPD’s arsenal that will, like all their others, devastate communities of color.”

“Information collected to stop a public health emergency has no place in the hands of law enforcement,” said Allie Bohm, Policy Counsel at the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU). “Effective contact tracing requires individuals to share a constellation of intimate information with contact tracers: their location and movements, health status, and associations. If individuals have any reason to believe that sharing the details of their lives will expose them or their loved ones to criminalization or deportation, they simply will not participate. Law enforcement and immigration authorities have, time and time again, given Black and brown communities – the very communities hardest hit by COVID-19 – reason for distrust. One need only look at the brutal law enforcement reaction to this week’s protests of white supremacy and police violence to understand why. The confidentiality of contact tracing information is essential for public health, privacy, and civil rights and racial justice. We urge the legislature to include S. 8450-A/A. 10500-A in next week’s package of police reform bills for immediate passage.”

“Black communities are bearing the brunt of two pandemics: COVID-19 and police violence,” said Katie Schaffer, Director of Advocacy and Organizing at Center for Community Alternatives. “In our efforts to stem the spread of COVID-19, we cannot create a new treasure trove of data for law enforcement or immigration enforcement to further target and criminalize communities of color.”

“In the midst of an unprecedented public health crisis, our number one priority should be the health and safety of all New Yorkers,” said Justine Olderman, Executive Director of The Bronx Defenders. “COVID-19 has already caused disproportionate harm to low-income communities of color. The contact tracing process is essential for helping this state recover, but it cannot be used to further target and punish communities that have already borne the brunt of his pandemic. For contact tracing to work, lawmakers must guarantee that it is purely a public health tool – not one of law enforcement and ICE.”

“The law will prevent police and ICE from weaponizing COVID-19 contact tracing data against communities of color,” said Albert Fox Cahn, Executive Director of Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. “We must not allow our health information to become another tool to track and terrorize Black and Latin/X New Yorkers. Without these protections, countless New Yorkers will refuse to participate in contact tracing, making those communities that bear the brunt of both policing and COVID-19 suffer more needless suffering and death.”

“As law enforcement continues to hoard data that invades the medical, genetic, and digital privacy of New Yorkers, it is crucial for our elected officials to protect their rights,” said Jerome D. Greco, Supervising Attorney of the Legal Aid Society’s Digital Forensics Unit. “We cannot allow the attempts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 be an excuse to give law enforcement more access to people’s sensitive and protected information.”

“If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it’s that we all depend on each other to keep us safe. We shelter in place whenever possible. We wear masks when we go outside. We deliver food and medicine to those in need. And, in the same vein, we need to keep police, ICE, ACS, and other punitive enforcement agencies away from contact tracing so that all communities can feel safe participating,” said Lisa Schreibersdorf, Executive Director of Brooklyn Defender Services. “Government must prove to Black people and other people of color and immigrants that the long history of invasive law enforcement surveillance will not infect this vital public health intervention.”