Safer Illinois: A Transatlantic Conversation on Privacy and Technology During an Epidemic

To help universities manage the COVID-19 pandemic on their campuses, researchers at the University of Illinois developed the Safer Illinois app to support the important strategy of contact tracing. How did developers of the app account for privacy concerns and attempt to tailor the app to serve a particular community’s well-being? How transferable is this technology and approach develop at the U of I to countries of the European Union, where GDPR legislation has established new standards for managing digital innovation with privacy concerns? 

On Friday, September 25, the European Union Center hosted a virtual panel discussion with Peter Fatelnig, Minister-Counsellor for Digital Economy Policies at the Delegation of the European Union to the United States; Sanjay Patel, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Sony Faculty Scholar, and Director of Alchemy, University of Illinois; and William Sullivan, Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture, Director of Rokwire, University of Illinois. The panel was moderated by Jacob Bowers, Associate Professor of Political Science.