Ethical use of drones in COVID-19 national emergency response programme

08 June 2020 | Story Supplied. Photo Adobe Stock. Read time 3 min.
One of the major challenges presented by COVID-19 is the ethical and responsible use of technology for public security and surveillance activities.
One of the major challenges presented by COVID-19 is the ethical and responsible use of technology for public security and surveillance activities.

A novel initiative from the newly established Tech4Good Lab within the School of IT at the University of Cape Town (UCT) aims to take the lead in building a Drones4Good knowledge community that will extend beyond South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

We live in an era in which technologies are transforming society rapidly. As such, there is a need for ethical frameworks and normative standards where societal values must be promoted as priorities.

One of the major challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa – and worldwide – is the ethical and responsible use of technology used for public security and surveillance activities. An example is how mobile technology can covertly collect and track citizens’ movements and internet activities through forensic cloud analysis.

 

“This is how we can work together in an ethical way to combat the spread of this virus and avoid the abuse of human rights.”

Led by Dr Sumarie Roodt and Dr Walter Uys, the Drones4Good knowledge community will determine the main privacy, safety and utility considerations (ethical, legal and social implications) regarding the use of drones for crowd monitoring, message broadcasting and social distancing activities related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We must seek effective and practical actions and produce high-quality solutions in a flexible and creative way to disseminate ideas, research and programmes,” said Roodt.

“This is how we can work together in an ethical way to combat the spread of this virus and avoid the abuse of human rights.”

Collaborative research

Discussions with other national stakeholders involved in drone development and deployment in the Global South have been initiated across business, government and civil society clusters, such as the regional not-for-profit company the Silicon Cape Initiative. As Africa’s largest and most productive technology innovation ecosystem enabler, Silicon Cape is helping to engage regional stakeholders in the drone innovation space.

“Through our research we strive towards a collaborative research and practice platform with multi-party participation and invite global business, academic, government and non-governmental institutions to participate. Even the public will be welcome to participate to help us build a more complete consensus that this problem and issue requires,” explained Uys.

The team plans to connect and encourage all parties to carry out targeted and interdisciplinary exchanges and cooperation in response to new problems brought about by this novel technological deployment.

The Drones4Good initiative is a collaboration between UCT, the University of Auckland and the University of Western Australia.


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Coronavirus Disease 2019 updates

COVID-19 is a global pandemic that caused President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare a national disaster in South Africa on 15 March and implement a national lockdown from 26 March.

UCT is taking the threat of infection in our university community extremely seriously, and this page will be updated regularly with the latest COVID-19 information.

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New SRC and other updates 16:44, 4 November 2020
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New UCT Council and other updates 15:12, 15 July 2020
Upcoming UCT virtual events 09:30, 15 July 2020
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Update for postgraduate students 12:55, 20 April 2020
UCT Human Resources and COVID-19 16:05, 19 March 2020
UCT confirms second COVID-19 case 09:15, 19 March 2020
Update on UCT COVID-19 response 13:50, 11 March 2020
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Resources

Video messages from the Department of Medicine

Getting credible, evidence-based, accessible information and recommendations relating to COVID-19

The Department of Medicine at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital, are producing educational video material for use on digital platforms and in multiple languages. The information contained in these videos is authenticated and endorsed by the team of experts based in the Department of Medicine. Many of the recommendations are based on current best evidence and are aligned to provincial, national and international guidelines. For more information on UCT’s Department of Medicine, please visit the website.


To watch more videos like these, visit the Department of Medicine’s YouTube channel.

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In an email to the UCT community, Vice-Chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng said:
“COVID-19, caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, is a rapidly changing epidemic. [...] Information [...] will be updated as and when new information becomes available.”

 

We are continuing to monitor the situation and we will be updating the UCT community regularly – as and when there are further updates. If you are concerned or need more information, students can contact the Student Wellness Service on 021 650 5620 or 021 650 1271 (after hours), while staff can contact 021 650 5685.

 

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