New York City’s Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams released a statement today expressing precaution that the enhanced oversight occuring during COVID-19 to enhance contact tracing should have oversight to ensure citizen’s personal data and privacy is not violated. He said in the press release that “it is vital to ensure that in intent and in impact, protecting the public health without jeopardizing the public’s civil liberties is paramount.” Williams cited the precedent of the U.S. government’s tendency to expand surveillance during times of crises as “imperative to have policies and procedures in place to protect that information prior to the wide-scale implementation of the program.”