Despite promising collaborative initiatives to develop principles, standards, and guidelines to help late adopters of digital health and developing nations catch up, policymakers are struggling to adopt and integrate digital technologies to their domestic health systems. With a large and growing selection of digital tools available, it is a challenge for countries to know what tools are both available and important and which tools best suit their context and needs for COVID-19 response and recovery and for building resilience to future crises. Underlying the discussions in this paper is an urgent need to restore and build greater transparency and public trust. The public needs to have confidence that digital solutions to public health emergencies protect them, respect their rights and empower them, and do not normalize the deployment of mass surveillance as the only way to deal with a crisis.
