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The recent global outbreak of SARS provides an opportunity to study the use and impact of public health informatics and population health technology to detect and fight a global epidemic. This includes the Internet, but also other technologies such as wireless devices, mobile phones, smart appliances, or smart homes. Some of the technologies brought forward during the SARS epidemic may have been primarily motivated by marketing efforts, or were more directed towards reassuring people that "something is being done," ie, fighting an "epidemic of fear." To understand "fear epidemiology" is important because early warning systems monitoring data from a large number of people may not be able to discriminate between a biological epidemic and an epidemic of fear. The need for critical evaluation of all of these technologies is stressed
