Fans of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets are flashing more than game tickets these days when entering Barclays Center.
They’re also required to show a recent negative Covid-19 test, a vaccination card, or their Excelsior Pass—New York’s first-in-the-nation “vaccine passport,” which uses QR codes on a smartphone to prove test results or vaccination against the disease.
The IBM-created Excelsior Pass, which debuted last month, is among a growing number of apps that could help Americans safely return to sporting events, theaters, restaurants, and flights.
But they’re also raising privacy concerns.
“It’s very important when we reopen communities and economies that there’s a level of trust in organizations such as the state of New York and IBM,” said Eric Piscini, IBM’s global vice president of emerging business networks who is leading the project. “We are here to serve communities and we are not just here to push out a piece of technology.”
Privacy fears around the public display of vaccination status threaten to hamper the rollout of a technology that could play a big part in reopening society and stemming the spread of Covid-19. But absent government coordination or regulation—and the Biden administration has been adamant that it won’t get directly involved—it’s left to the private sector to build consumer trust and navigate the laws that dictate how to keep data secure and confidential.
Tech Companies’ Role
The debate comes as the national vaccination effort is well underway. More than 200 million doses have been administered in the U.S., according to the Bloomberg vaccine tracker.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions from a legal perspective,” said Sean Sullivan, a health-care attorney at Alston & Bird LLP in Atlanta. “There’s not the same kind of privacy framework for this sort of thing.”