The Governor for Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, has stated that businesses that fail to surveil their customers will face six months in prison. The surveillance is meant for contact tracing. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) has made it mandatory for businesses ranging from restaurants, barbershops, tattoo parlors, recreational facilities, and entertainment establishments to maintain a record of the names, essential contact information, and visiting time of all their customers in order to “aid with contact tracing.”
Michigan Governor orders businesses to surveil customers
According to the Michigan Governor, if any business establishment fails to comply with these guidelines, the business owner will incur a maximum fine of $200 along with a misdemeanor charge punishable with up to six months in jail. This order was announced on Friday, as a result of Gretchen Whitmer and her administration keeping a strict check on backtracking the state’s latest reopening plan and tightening COVID-19 guidelines, these record-keeping obligations will help with citing rising hospitalizations and deaths.
Governor Whitmer and her administration have attracted considerable criticism and backlash for handling COVID-19 after she became a signatory to an executive order, this executive order was largely similar to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s order that ordered nursing homes and assisted living centers to admit infected patients again. As a result, the reinfected patients were admitted again into facilities with vulnerable people “A long-term care facility must not prohibit admission or readmission of a resident based on COVID-19 testing requirements or results in a manner that is inconsistent with this order,” Whitmer’s May executive order states.
The newly announced restrictions and guidelines also emphasized the importance of face masks. The orders extended the use of face masks to children, children as young as two years old are to wear masks at daycares, schools, and other outdoor settings.
Business owners can face up to six months in prison if they violate orders
Several people feel that this new restriction will have an adverse impact on small businesses. One user tweeted, “So if you wanna go grab a quick bite to eat in Michigan now you have to worry about being harassed by the shop owner for your personal info so that the govt can contact you about who youve been in contact with???”. He added, “Also, If you’re a small business owner of a restaurant in Michigan you now have to demand your customers name and phone number so the govt can harass them, hoping they won’t just buy food elsewhere while your small biz struggles to stay afloat with no help from that same govt.
While another tweeted, Criminal is at it again, now violating the privacy of citizens who decide to dine-out. There’s a reason people across this nation view her as an up-and-coming Little Hitler.” Another stated, So now you want to put Business Owners in Jail…you are already in violation on a Business Owners right against the Laws for the Land…maybe you should be put in jail for what your have already done…All Business Owners need to get a Lawyer and go after this Governorasap.
