Useless and dangerous: A critical exploration of Covid applications and their human rights impacts in Colombia

This report analyzes these dynamics and exposes some problems with the functioning of the appli-cations, their possible impacts on certain communities and on the exercise of human rights, and how they relate to the public health guidelines implemented in the country. The main objective is to understand how these apps were designed and implemented and how they relate to, interact with, and have an impact on public health, human rights, and vulnerable communities during the pandemic caused by Covid-19.The report addresses three key elements. The first explores the connection between these apps and the Colombian health system and the coordination problems between state entities. The second presents an analysis of the restrictions placed on fundamental rights and the exercise of violence through these apps, which focus on surveillance and controlling people’s behavior. Finally, the third element shows how the deployment of these apps, together with the alternative measures introduced to manage the pandemic, has had strong impacts on the most vulnerable groups. For informal vendors and people living in poverty particularly, the result of these combined actions has been to exacerbate the structural violence they face.