Big Tech faces a ‘Big Brother’ trap on coronavirus

As the federal government shifts into an all-hands-on-deck fight to battle coronavirus, President Donald Trump and his White House have increasingly called on tech companies to lend a hand. The companies are in conversations with government about to leverage their might and reach; the Trump White House held a conference call to talk about what they can do to help, from helping analyze scholarly research to pulling down misinformation on the virus. For the tech giants, this plea represents a huge opportunity to get back in the public’s good graces, as an industry whose image has taken a beating is being asked, even urged, to step up in a moment of national emergency. But they also have a problem: Arguably the single most powerful tool at their disposal, their growing troves of data on every American user, is exactly the thing their customers have grown worried about. They’re fighting the perception that they’re Big Brother — which, in a pandemic, that’s exactly why they’re useful.