UK Track And Trace Scheme Broke UK Data Protection, Campaigners Claim

By Tom Jowitt for Silicon UK
Tuesday, July 21, 2020

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But another expert said the government was dealing with the challenges of an unprecedented health emergency, with lives at stake, so missing compliance formalities was understandable.

“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,” said Ilia Kolochenko, founder & CEO of web security company ImmuniWeb.

“This pandemic has brought us the challenges of unprecedented complexity, emergency and scale making most of the common procedures and formalities unfeasible,” Kolochenko added.

“Unless there is a clear and convincing evidence of any material non-compliances or misuse of the data, I’d refrain from criticising the approach selected by the UK government to handle the programme urgently,” said Kolochenko.

“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,” said Kolochenko.

“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,” Kolochenko concluded. “It is highly unlikely that under the circumstances anyone will have a viable claim for relief against the UK government.” Read Full Article