Covid-19 times are not easy; we are not used to dealing with such situations. This experience has forced us to change our ways of acting and our standards. Naturally, the majority of us are very concerned about our privacy, we want to protect our data and our families, and minimize our public exposure.

Teleworking will become much more widespread in many areas. Online training, which is already a reality, will continue growing rapidly. Fortunately, we live in a connected world that offers us countless quality solutions for working and learning at home. Nevertheless, human beings have an intrinsic need to relate with each other, to be close to one another, to travel and to move freely. Although we all have to adapt to this new situation and change many aspects of our lives, we are not going to give up the things we need to feel accomplished, to do our work or to enjoy our leisure time.

However, something as simple as taking a trip on public transport or having a coffee in a bar can become an odyssey if we have to maintain rigorous social distancing measures, or if we are concerned about the state of health of those who are with us. Thus, it is necessary to implement measures that will make it easier for us to safely carry out the activities that we have been doing until now, perhaps at the expense of having to share the data that we previously considered personal.

There are different initiatives which have set out mechanisms through which we could gradually move out of lockdown, such as those of Hostelería de España, Acotex, CEC, Aecoc, etc. Some proposals even present a type of biological passport. However, while coming up with all those solutions, we have to be very careful not to disturb the delicate balance between our rights, data privacy and security.

Alternatives such as blockchain facilitate the development of balanced solutions and will allow to issue visas ratified by governments and health authorities. These instruments will facilitate free movement in much the same way as before, and without exposing confidential or personal information to the public.

An interesting initiative: http://hicard.travel/

 

 

 

 

Posted by Juan M. Corchado

Juan Manuel Corchado (15 May 1971, Salamanca, Spain) is Professor at the University of Salamanca. He has been Vice-Rector for Research from 2013 to 2017 and Director of the Science Park of the University of Salamanca. Elected as Dean of the Faculty of Science twice, he holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Salamanca and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of the West of Scotland. He leads the renowned BISITE (Bioinformatics, Intelligent Systems and Educational Technology) Research Group, created in 2000. Director of the IoT Digital Innovation Hub and President of the AIR Institute, J. M. Corchado is also Visiting Professor at the Osaka Institute of Technology since January 2015, Visiting Professor at the Universiti Malaysia Kelantan and Member of the Advisory Group on Online Terrorist Propaganda of the European Counter Terrorism Centre (EUROPOL). J. M. Corchado has been president of the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society, and academic coordinator of the University Institute for Research in Art and Animation Technology at the University of Salamanca, as well as researcher at the Universities of Paisley (UK), Vigo (Spain) and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (UK). He currently combines all his activity with the direction of Master programmes in Security, Digital Animation, Mobile Telephony, Information Systems Management, Internet of Things, Social Media, 3D Design and Printing, Blockchain, Z System, Industry 4.0, Agile Project Management, and Smart Cities & Intelligent Buildings, at the University of Salamanca and his work as editor-in-chief of the journals ADCAIJ (Advances in Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence Journal), OJCST (Oriental Journal of Computer Science and Technology) or Electronics MDPI (Computer Science & Engineering section). J. M. Corchado mainly works on projects related to Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, IoT, Fog Computing, Edge Computing, Smart Cities, Smart Grids and Sentiment Analysis. He has recently been included in the board of trustees of the AstraZeneca Foundation, along with other health professionals and researchers recognised for bringing scientific knowledge closer to society.

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