CIVIC HACKING
for THE RIGHT TO KNOW
&& THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY

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The year 2020 with COVID-19
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will be remembered as a special turning point separating “Before Corona(B.C.)” and “After Corona(A.C.).”

The world had to adjust to the new normal while witnessing the limitations of the system that had functioned previously and seek new ways to overcome these limitations together.

This solidarity was especially evident in online activities that leveraged the situation as an opportunity and affected citizens' participation in social issues, including CIVIC HACKERs’ CRISIS MAPPING PROJECTS in SOUTH KOREA.|

Overview

Open data ethics in a crisis

Can invasion of GEOPRIVACY be ‘justified for ‘the greater good'' in an emergency crisis situation? Is contact tracing technology potentially justifying GEOSURVEILLANCE?

Ethical issues of crisis mapping

Have we defined the legal LIABILITY of the creators and distributors of crisis mapping? How can we deal with crisis mapping wherewith SPATIALLY EXPLICIT characteristics?

Civic hacking for crisis damage mitigation

Why does civic hacking matter during a crisis? Civic hackers, as FIRST RESPONDERS to the global crisis in the digital world, have shown INNOVATIVE HUMANITARIAN RESPONSES.

Background

Following the KCDC's guideline for disclosing movement path information of confirmed patients, the information after 14 days of its disclosure is no longer accessible to the public.

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Civic Hackers as Crisis Mappers && First Responders in digital world
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How did CIVIC HACKERS respond to the reaction of the government and citizens?
What was the overall trend we can observe from their CRISIS MAPPING projects?|

Case Analysis

Analysis of 10 crisis mapping web applications (June 2020)

No map

was providing patients’ movement path information at the moment of the analysis, while 7 maps had previously provided the information.

5 maps

were providing the location information of confirmed patient visits.

7 maps

were interrupted.
4 maps closed web application, 3 maps stopped updating the information.

3 maps

were still running but not providing the movement path information, while 2 maps among these had previously supported the information.

Overall, despite the continuation of the coronavirus crisis,
many CRISIS MAPPING projects by CIVIC HACKERS did not last long, and there was a clear decrease in the MOVEMENT PATH data visualization even if the map service was still maintained.|

WHY?

1. Legal difficulties?

2. Technical difficulties?

3. Ethical difficulties?

or Others?

Interview

Journey and Reflection of 3 civic hackers and 2 open data activists

Civic Hacker
A

corona-nearby

Civic Hacker
B

coronamap live

Civic Hacker
C

corona arrangy

Open Data Activist
D

parti

Open Data Activist
E

DS4C

Although the current status of the web applications has varied, the timeline shows that there was a shared experience of interruptions in their web application and/or updates to information during the first mass infection in March.

Results

Technical difficulties in data collection and processing

Technical difficulties were the decisive factor that raised barriers to sustaining civic hacking projects.

Diminishing utility of location and movement data visualizations

Since the number of confirmed cases soared after the mass infection in March, civic hackers have begun to question how useful it is even if movement data is collected and visualized.

Perceived privacy concerns of location and movement visualizations

The most vulnerable group identified with disclosure of the location and movement path information of the confirmed patient's visit was local small business owners.

Just as the South Korean government learned lessons about
transparent and rapid disclosure of information from MERS,
we can learn lessons from the COVID-19 outbreak.|

Future Research

How might we build together a digital infrastructure for resilient society in the face of crisis situations?

Building a Code of Conduct

Recent governmental movement towards formalization of privacy protection measures of open data and personal data stewardship agency opens further discussion on the role and responsibility of government and civic hackers to coproduce and comanage open data ethics in an emergency.

Civic Hacking to Civic Service Design and Information Systems

Civic hacking empower citizens’ capabilities and to practice their autonomy in the digital transformation of governance. Collective action led by citizens requires sustainable civic networks to shape and audit an open democratic environment.