As my colleague Bernd Brunke has pointed out, it's 'privacy AND fight the pandemic', not OR. We need to adopt acceptable privacy standards while we rush to innovate for ways to track infection and seek treatments.
Tech companies also need to be transparent about their handling and use of data to retain the trust of citizens at this stressful time. This creates an opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of responsible use of our collective data, which just might herald a new era of trust, if handled right.
The EU’s digital chief Margrethe Vestager has sought to allay privacy fears over the use of certain mobile applications in the fight against the coronavirus, a day after the EU rolled out a series of recommendations for the use of such technologies.
“You don’t have to choose between fighting the virus and protecting privacy,” she told EURACTIV in a telephone interview on Friday (17 April). “You can do something that also makes very good sense with privacy and at the same time, get a digital tool that will be very useful.”
On Thursday, the European Commission published guidance on the use of mobile applications, as well as the data protection considerations that should be taken into account as part of such technologies.
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