Coronavirus concerns are not a carte blanche to snoop: Europe Human Rights Commissioner

‘As more and more countries resort to using digital tools to monitor and track their citizens, those measures must comply with privacy laws, writes Dunja Mijatovic, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights. She calls for a balance between privacy and health measures:

• ‘First of all, digital devices must be designed and used in compliance with privacy and non-discrimination norms. They must be anonymous, encrypted, decentralized, function on open source and be available to the largest number of people possible, thus bridging the digital divide. Their use must be voluntary, based on informed consent, restricted to the purposes of health protection, contain a clear time limit and be fully transparent. Users should be able to opt-out at any moment, deleting all their data, and be able to challenge intrusions into their private sphere through effective measures.
• ‘Secondly, laws must comply strictly with the right to privacy as protected by the laws of national constitutions and of the European Court of Human Rights.
• ‘Thirdly, government operations must be subject to judicial review, as well as monitoring by parliament and national human rights institutions to ensure accountability. Independent data protection authorities must test and approve technological devices before they are used.’

Read here (DW, May 1, 2020)