EU Wants Data Privacy for COVID-19 Tracking Apps

Already with some of the world’s strictest privacy laws, the European Union wants mobile apps tracking COVID-19 cases to keep most data on devices instead of a central server as governments consider schemes to follow the path of the pandemic.
European countries hope the apps could make it easier to eventually lift lockdown orders that have closed non-essential businesses and hold down the spread of the aggressively contagious virus that has hit the region the hardest.
The EU wants to ensure apps don’t compromise privacy by allowing unauthorized access to sensitive data, with European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova saying they won’t work if they’re not trusted.
“Respecting the EU data protection rules will help ensure that our privacy and fundamental rights will be upheld and that the European approach will be transparent and proportional,” she said.
In the document setting out the European Commission’s data privacy guidelines, seen by Reuters, it was recommended that the 27 member states put national health agencies in charge of compliance with data rules, “given the sensitivity of the personal data at hand and the purpose of data processing.”
The apps roll-out comes at the same time that a number of EU countries have been accused of using the COVID-19 crisis as a cover to consolidate power, such as in Hungary where Premier Viktor Orban was given unlimited rule by decree.
The apps could be used to surveil citizens for reasons other than keeping track of the virus’ spread. Unlike many Asian countries running schemes on centralized servers, the EU favored a decentralized approach to storing data.
“The Commission recommends that the data should be stored on the terminal device of the individual. In the case that the data is stored in a central server, the access, including the administrative access, should be logged,” the document said.
The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that began in 2018 imposes steep fines on companies that violate the measure.
The apps could also be used to follow people to avoid what could be a disastrous aftermath in case of pandemic rebound.
Eiko Yoneki, Senior Researcher at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory told Euronews that, “”Once this quarantine period is over, there is definitely going to be a second wave. You can’t really quarantine for six months or one year. So to prevent that and minimize the economic, social and human life damage, I think this kind of data would really help.”
An EU coalition of technologists and scientists drawn from at least eight countries, and led by Germany’s Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute for telecoms (HHI), is working on contacts-tracing proximity technology for COVID-19 that’s designed to comply with the region’s strict privacy rules, said Tech Crunch.
The pandemic is piling pressure on the EU to find a safe data protection model that utilizes technology to help track the spread of the virus and support overwhelmed public health systems.
The new Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT) project is a response to the pandemic creating a spike in demand for citizens’ data that’s intended to offer not just an another app — but what’s described as “a fully privacy-preserving approach” to COVID-19 contacts tracing, the site said.