Comment: England’s COVID-19 Test and Trace Programme ‘breaks GDPR data law’

Information Security Buzz
Tuesday, July 21, 2020

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BB News reported that privacy campaigners say England’s coronavirus test and trace program has broken a key data protection law. The program was launched without carrying out an assessment of its impact on privacy as conceded by the Department of Health. It involves people being asked to share sensitive personal information.

Ilia Kolochenko, CEO, ImmuniWeb

It is highly unlikely that under the circumstances anyone will have a viable claim for relief against the UK government.

In light of the circumstances, I would not cast any sinister light or raise any doubts on the currently unfinished DPIA assessment of the programme. This pandemic has brought us the challenges of unprecedented complexity, emergency, and scale making most of the common procedures and formalities unfeasible.

Unless there is clear and convincing evidence of any material non-compliances or misuse of the data, I’d refrain from criticizing the approach selected by the UK government to handle the programme urgently. Were they mechanically following all of the compliance formalities through the jungles of bureaucracy, they would likely have endangered many innocent lives by the delay and also inflicted incalculable financial damage upon the spiraling economy.

It is now important to rigorously follow DPIA procedures to retroactively confirm and duly validate the programme’s data protection and privacy in accordance with the enacted law. It is highly unlikely that under the circumstances anyone will have a viable claim for relief against the UK government. Read Full Article