The UK’s initiative to trace contacts of people infected with Covid-19 is receiving criticism, as privacy campaigners maintain that it was rolled-out without a proper required assessment of its impact on privacy.
This test & trace program asks people for their sensitive personal information, including name, birth-date, postcode, who they live with, places recently visited, & names & contact details of people they have been in close contact with, including sexual partners.
Unlawful
UK Open Rights Group (ORG) says the initiative has been unlawful since it began on May 28th, but the govt. responded that there is no evidence of data being used unlawfully, & there was no breach of any of the data that has been stored.
The ORG had threatened to go to court to force the government to conduct a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA), a requirement under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for projects that process personal data.
Ethical
A spokesperson for the Department of Health has commented they are committed to the highest ethical & data governance standards as they collect and retain data to fight the virus.
