Big Tech’s reputation is rising as governments tap the industry in coronavirus response

The coronavirus crisis quickly became an unexpected life raft for the technology industry’s image as even its biggest critics enlist Big Tech’s help. The scale of large technology companies — seen as a liability just a few months ago — offers unique advantages in a global health crisis and they are buoying the industry’s reputation.

In a new Harris Poll of more than 2,000 Americans, 38% said their view of the technology industry has become more positive since the start of the outbreak. What’s more, 40% believe the tech industry should provide solutions during the pandemic.

Those solutions are already underway. The nation’s biggest tech companies are using their considerable might to solve various challenges posed by COVID-19.

Apple and Google are working on software updates for iOS and Android that will trace the mobile phones that come into close contact with COVID-19 patients. Contact tracing is viewed as a critical tool for mitigating disease outbreaks and tech companies are stepping in to automate parts of a traditionally laborious process.

Coronavirus Live Updates: The latest COVID-19 developments in Seattle and the world of tech

Amazon is adding 175,000 workers to continue delivering items and groceries to thousands of consumers around the world who are sheltering at home.

Microsoft is leveraging its global supply chain to get personal protective gear to frontline healthcare workers. Microsoft also partnered with the University of Washington to develop a concept app that seeks to balance the need for contact tracing with privacy concerns.

The initiatives appear to be currying favor with the American public. Harris polling found 71% of Americans said they are willing to share their own location data and receive alerts about possible exposure to the virus. A public registry of COVID-19 cases is also popular; 65% of respondents said they favored some kind of database that would show if their neighbors tested positive for the virus.

GeekWire readers appear to be more circumspect, according to a small informal Twitter poll. About 57 percent disagreed with Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s assertion that Big Tech deserves more gratitude for its response to the pandemic.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said we should be more “grateful” for Big Tech companies after the coronavirus pandemic: https://t.co/2pk1TW47Ah

Do you agree?

— GeekWire (@geekwire) April 16, 2020

The tech industry is poised to gain more than a reputational boost from the pandemic. Shares of Amazon hit record highs last week and other large technology companies are seeing boosts from the shift to remote work and education.

Steven Davidoff Solomon, a professor at the University of California-Berkeley, wrote in The New York Times that large tech companies can also take advantage of a “failing firm exemption” for M&A deals due to the pandemic.

“If past crises are any guide, the big technology companies are about to sidestep antitrust laws and get even bigger,” he said.

The shift shows how abruptly the coronavirus has reshaped our reality. Just a few months ago politicians on both sides of the aisle were calling for more regulation of the technology industry, citing antitrust, free speech, and data privacy concerns.

“This is the natural endpoint of an online privacy debate that has always been more about culture war and competition policy than actual, empirical evidence of harm,” said Alex Stamos, director of the Stanford Internet Observatory and former Facebook security chief, in a tweet.

On the brink of this sea change, it’s worth remembering that it wasn’t theoretical fear about data mining that led to a global appetite for more regulation. The Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed personal data to be a powerful political tool in the hands of those who know how to wield it.

Privacy is often one of the first social moors to be loosened in a crisis. Congress significantly expanded government surveillance powers through the Patriot Act just 45 days after the 9/11 attacks. That paved the way for the National Security Administration’s secret PRISM program in which the government collected private data on Americans from companies like Microsoft and Google.

Despite the privacy concerns, the unprecedented nature of the coronavirus crisis presents an opportunity for the technology industry to rebuild trust. Apple and Google say the contact tracing tools they are building will be voluntary and will not outlive the crisis, assuaging some concerns from civil rights groups.

“To their credit, Apple and Google have announced an approach that appears to mitigate the worst privacy and centralization risks, but there is still room for improvement,” said the ACLU’s Jennifer Granick in a statement. “We will remain vigilant moving forward to make sure any contact tracing app remains voluntary and decentralized, and used only for public health purposes and only for the duration of this pandemic.”