{"id":3380,"date":"2021-09-02T20:43:42","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T06:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/?p=3380"},"modified":"2021-09-02T20:43:42","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T06:43:42","slug":"digital-vaccine-passports-pose-threat-to-equity-civil-liberties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/?p=3380","title":{"rendered":"Digital vaccine passports pose threat to equity, civil liberties<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"COVID-19<\/a>Publisher’s Note:<\/strong> <\/span>While I am not opposed to the COVID-19 vaccine, I am vehemently opposed to vaccine passports and especially those of an electronic nature, typically found in smart phone apps for Android and iOS. NO! NO! NO!<\/strong> These types of apps are HUGE privacy holes that are used to track your every move. Not everyone has or wants to use a smart device. It is bad enough that Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and a slew of other big tech companies “give away” free apps mainly to track your movements. People… get off that smart phone or at least turn off the tracking components such as location, bluetooth, wifi and data when you are in motion. Better yet, use an alternate device such as an old fashioned flip phone with less features than your typical smart phone.<\/p>\n

The following is a press release issued by the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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NEWS RELEASE:\u00a0<\/strong>For more information, contact Mark Coleman at 808-386-9047 or info@grassrootinstitute.org.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Digital vaccine passports pose threat to equity, civil liberties<\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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The Honolulu City Council is considering a resolution that would urge digital\u00a0<\/em>vaccine passports for “higher risk”\u00a0<\/em>establishments\u00a0statewide<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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HONOLULU, Sept. 2, 2021 >> A resolution being considered today at Honolulu Hale poses a threat to the privacy, security, access and\u00a0civil liberties of all Hawaii residents, according to\u00a0testimony<\/a>\u00a0submitted today by the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.<\/p>\n

Being heard by the City Council’s\u00a0Committee on Transportation, Sustainability and Health, the proposed\u00a0Resolution 21-194<\/a>\u00a0would urge the city administration and the state of Hawaii to implement a digital COVID-19 passport for \u201cestablishments at higher risk of transmission of COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\n

In comments submitted to the committee,\u00a0Joe Kent<\/strong>, institute\u00a0executive vice president,\u00a0said the institute\u00a0shares\u00a0the concerns of the\u00a0American Civil Liberties Union\u00a0<\/a>about the privacy, security and access issues that could be caused by a digital vaccine passport, and has “grave concerns about the overly pervasive mandates for vaccine passports that would split our residents into separate tiers.<\/p>\n

“At the least,” Kent said, “those would include individuals who have been vaccinated, those who have religious or medical exemptions from the mandate, those who simply have not been vaccinated, and possibly those who have been vaccinated overseas with vaccines not recognized in the U.S.”<\/p>\n

Kent noted that in the view\u00a0of the ACLU, if vaccine passports are to be used at all, they should be primarily paper-based, for three reasons:<\/p>\n

>> An exclusively digital system would increase inequality for individuals with less access to digital technology, such as people who are homeless, low-income, have disabilities or are elderly.<\/p>\n

>> Centralized digital systems are not good for transparency, privacy and user control, and a trustworthy decentralized digital system, such as with blockchain technology, would be difficult to create.<\/p>\n

>> Digital systems are ripe for inappropriately sharing or leaking user data, such as to a big company seeking to track user movements from one establishment to the next.<\/p>\n

Kent said that, according to the ACLU,\u00a0these issues could deter individuals from getting the vaccine, and that any passport system could shut out individuals unable to take the vaccine because of certain medical conditions or access.<\/p>\n

“It also could shut out individuals who have already taken a COVID-19 vaccine widely available overseas that is not recognized in the U.S.,” Kent said. “These fully vaccinated persons would question whether they should also take a vaccine recognized in the U.S., and whether that is even medically necessary or advisable.”<\/p>\n

All things considered, “The efficacy of widely mandated vaccine passports is highly suspect,” Kent said, “and a digital passport brings up significant equity and civil liberty issues. The New York measure upon which this Honolulu resolution is based is already being challenged in court and has been criticized for its intrusions.”<\/p>\n

Kent\u00a0urged the committee to shelve the\u00a0resolution “so as to preserve the safety, privacy and open access to daily life of its citizens and visitors.”<\/p>\n

For more information about the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, or to arrange an interview with Joe Kent or\u00a0Malia Hill<\/strong>,\u00a0institute policy director,\u00a0please contact\u00a0Mark Coleman<\/strong>\u00a0at 808-386-9047 or info@grassrootinstitute.org.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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That Grassroot Institute of Hawaii is a nonpartisan, nonprofit research and educational institute devoted to promoting individual liberty, economic freedom and and limited, accountable government. Its goal is to improve the quality of life in Hawaii by\u00a0lowering the cost of living and expanding opportunities for all.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Publisher’s Note: While I am not opposed to the COVID-19 vaccine, I am vehemently opposed to vaccine passports and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,830,9,24,49],"tags":[772,122,792,873,872,13,26,869,870,871],"class_list":["post-3380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-covid-19","category-hawaii","category-press-release","category-technology","tag-city-council","tag-commentary","tag-covid-19","tag-freedom","tag-government-over-reach","tag-hawaii","tag-press-release","tag-privacy","tag-tracking","tag-vaccine-passports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3380"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3383,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3380\/revisions\/3383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}