Fixing the wrong problems: Queer communities and the false promise of unbiased and equal data systems

The start of the 2020s brought the relationship between queer communities and data protection into sharp focus. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, many jurisdictions expanded their use of surveillance technologies – such as trace and test systems – with devastating impacts for some lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and other sexual/gender minoritised individuals. In Seoul’s Itaewon gay district, for example, the spread of Covid-19 in bars and clubs created a climate of fear among those worried that the collection and presentation of personal data might out individuals to family, friends and employers. South Korea deployed a particularly invasive approach to tracing contacts of those potentially exposed to Covid-19, which involved the capture of location data from multiple sources and public dissemination of information about individuals’ whereabouts. In contexts where queer communities face discrimination and social exclusion, the public suggestion that you might be LGBTQ+ meant that many of the individuals involved were too scared to contact health services and terrified about what data might reveal about their lives.