Track and trace is being used to harass women - already

[CourtneyLurve]

www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/test-trace-used-harass-women-already/

No share link, so some excerpts:

When a young French woman with a choppy fringe and gold earrings asked me for my number before she took my lunch order at a restaurant on London’s Bermondsey Street yesterday, I didn’t think twice. She did so jovially and I felt I was doing my bit, like wearing a mask or liberally applying hand sanitiser.

But there is a much darker, deeply troubling phenomenon emerging out of handing over data in restaurants and pubs in order to try to curtail the spread of Covid-19. Women are starting to report that staff are approaching them inappropriately, using their details to contact them in order to ask them out.

In the UK, a young woman reported on social media that a barman approached her on Facebook to ask her out for a drink after she’d visited the pub he was working in the day before. In New Zealand, after visiting a Subway restaurant and handing over requested personal information, another woman received an email, text and Facebook and Instagram requests from the man who served her. Speaking to local media she said, “I'd feel really, really scared [if I lived alone]. Even now I feel a bit creeped out and vulnerable”. The Subway employee has since been suspended.

Like any long-standing campaign that wants to avoid defeat, harassers are quick and agile in utilising new opportunities. Yet, perhaps worst of all, when it comes to track and trace, women have little choice but to be compliant. In terms of your health, it is in your best interest to hand over your data.

The idea that an individual would see this public health crisis as a chance to harass a stranger is remarkable but not shocking. The culture that permits harassment makes no allowances for global pandemics, in fact, if anything the pandemic has reinforced that same culture.

A report by the Women and Equalities Committee in 2018 found that “sexual harassment pervades the lives of women and girls and is deeply ingrained in our culture”. The report cites recent studies which found that 85 percent of women aged 18–24 and 64 percent of women of all ages reported that they had experienced unwanted sexual attention in public places. Thanks to test and trace, those advances now have the facade of being state-sanctioned.

It's never ending isn't it?

Surely in the UK this abuse of personal data is a breach of GDPR legislation and should be fined/prosecuted as such?
If the company hasn't done training for staff collecting the data and ensured it is kept on need to know basis, they are liable too.

So while the police/govt don't care about your everyday run-of-the-mill sexual harassment (that's a fight for another day) they should definitely be acting in these cases.
It will definitely deter people from giving their real details otherwise.

Surely in the UK this abuse of personal data is a breach of GDPR legislation and should be fined/prosecuted as such?

The information commissioner’s office has hardly prosecuted anyone. The worst they seem to do in most cases is send an email telling companies to look at their GDPR policies again. Did they even persecute Mermaids for putting a heap of very sensitive personal data into the public domaine?

The lack of women in relevant positions to give useful input is actively harming us.

We emphatically need better security.

This is awful and inevitable. Male fucking entitlement knows no bounds.

@Aesopfable

Surely in the UK this abuse of personal data is a breach of GDPR legislation and should be fined/prosecuted as such?

The information commissioner’s office has hardly prosecuted anyone. The worst they seem to do in most cases is send an email telling companies to look at their GDPR policies again. Did they even persecute Mermaids for putting a heap of very sensitive personal data into the public domaine?

Hefty fines have definitely been handed out to some organisations, £200m to British Airways and £50m to Google in 2019. I can't find anything about mermaids, likely as it's their first breach and they're a charity they got away with a "sorry, won't do it again, promise". Pointing out GDPR violations can make organisations sit up though, because of rh potential for legal action, whereas otherwise they might just dismiss it as a "bad egg" and no "real harm" done. At the very least they have to report it as a breach, and an email from the commission could be enough to make them realise that they need to treat people's personal data responsibly.

If I have to sign in at any bars or restaurants I'll be asking after their procedures for handling my data.

Years ago, one of my young female colleague received a phone call at work from some random male who’d seen her photo on the company’s website and wanted her to go out with him. 🙄 There really is no filter or sense of propriety with some men. She was really creeped out by it, as not knowing what he looked like she said she wouldn’t know if he turned up outside our building and started following her.

Of course it will be, people who want to harass women will take any advantage.

Let's just scrap it, eh?

I read a similar, or possibly the same, thing on Twitter. So many men commenting couldn’t see the harm in it.

Do you have to give your address? Email and phone I wouldn’t mind.

@MintyMabel

Of course it will be, people who want to harass women will take any advantage.

Let's just scrap it, eh?

This is the saddest bit! Like of course. What else did we expect? Middle of a pandemic and a womans safety or right to not be harassed still doesn't matter!

Last week the guy who delivered my aldi furniture whatsapped me a lame ass excuse to contact me and then started calling me love and hun.

Just. Fuck. Off.

Why are they like this? Makes me weep for my growing daughter.

@BettyFilous

Years ago, one of my young female colleague received a phone call at work from some random male who’d seen her photo on the company’s website and wanted her to go out with him. 🙄 There really is no filter or sense of propriety with some men. She was really creeped out by it, as not knowing what he looked like she said she wouldn’t know if he turned up outside our building and started following her.

I partly blame movie culture for some of this entitlement. How many naff romcoms are based on this sort of premise sold to us as some kind of extravagantly romantic gesture? That a man who won't take no for an answer is just a brave warrior on a quest to win the girl of his dreams.

When I was 16 I had a Saturday job in a supermarket. Most of the till staff were 16/17 year old girls and every week there'd be grown men waiting outside the store when it closed so they could approach us. It was common for girls to be followed home and with hindsight it really was borderline stalking.

I suppose these days they are able to indulge in this sort of behaviour without leaving the house.

"I definitely didn't use the Track and Trace thing to find you." Sure mate, sure...

"I went to the pub the other day (it was empty and I sat outside) and got a free drink from the bartender and… he’s just messaged me on facebook t.co/lwRBZJANsf "

"the tinder thing can’t be true because I haven’t used it for two years… not super keen on handing over my name, email and phone number for contact tracing if men are going to use it for this"

twitter.com/roselyddon/status/1281885086347075588?s=19

Why am I not remotely surprised by this?

@HandsOffMyRights

Why am I not remotely surprised by this?

It's all a bit Captain Obvious isn't it?

Quite a lot of women were pointing out prior to implementation that this would be an issue.

That a man who won't take no for an answer is just a brave warrior on a quest to win the girl of his dreams.

Gavin de Becker makes this point in The Gift of Fear. Meanwhile, if a women does it in a film she's portrayed as an unhinged stalker. The irony.

I will be asking the GDPR question before handing over any contact details - thanks to PPs suggesting this above.

I partly blame movie culture for some of this entitlement. How many naff romcoms are based on this sort of premise sold to us as some kind of extravagantly romantic gesture

This is exactly it.

Peep Show nailed it

Jeremy: Faint heart never won fair maid!
Mark: Right. The epigram that starts the stalker's manifesto.

Not surprising at all. What can be done to stop it though? I haven’t left the house for so long and I’m going to ask, do we need to give our number to anywhere we use?

I'd like to be able to say that I am surprised by this. Sadly, I am not and there is an inevitability about it.

Sadly, not surprising.

For those women who can afford it, it's time to get a second (or third) non-Smart throwaway phone.

The £5-£20 PAYG type.

@Quietlyloud it’s for track and trace. If someone has been in the pub reports symptoms, they will contact you so you can get tested.

Redcrayons I get the gist of it but I’m wondering if I was to enter somewhere I give my number straight away?

I was commenting to my DH earlier that GDPR seems to have fallen by the wayside in all of this. So far I have only been asked for my name and phone number and I'm too old to think anyone might want to misuse the info for anything other than for what it is intended for but i can see why younger people might be worried about their details being jotted down on random sheets if paper. Some people doing this won't even be registered with the relevant data authorities. Eg yesterday i had my hair cut at a barbers. They have a walk in service so no records of customers held. But yesterday i had to give my name and phone number for them to hold for 21 days (presumably) but they won't be registered with the data commissioner as they don't usually hold any data on anyone.