The AEPD is positioned on the applications of the coronavirus: can’t suspend the right to the protection of data

Given the severity of the health crisis of the coronavirus, there are many governments and organizations that have been released to the development of applications and websites that claim to help you detect positive for the virus by asking questions. There are also variants that involve geolocation, something that in Spain is posing on the part of the operators.

In this scenario, the question that many users and experts have been made is what happens with the treatment of all those personal and sensitive data such as health? The Spanish Agency for Data Protection (AEPD) is the agency that oversees Spain in compliance with the General Rules of Data Protection (RGPD) and the Organic Law of Personal Data Protection and the guarantee of digital rights (LOPDGDD), and since it has been pronounced about these cases.

This situation “you can’t assume a suspension of the fundamental right to protection of personal data”

The position of the AEPD is clear and incisive, though more flexible than in other cases. Since the Agency understand the problems generated by the situation and why they are developing these initiatives and applications, but judged that “this emergency situation must not lead to a suspension of the fundamental right to protection of personal data“.

But there are nuances, of course, and recognize that “data protection rules cannot be used to obstruct or limit the effectiveness of the measures taken by the competent authorities”, referring to the role that may be playing, for example the health. This flexibility, however, would already be collected in the different standards: “they provide solutions that allow to reconcile the lawful use of personal data with the necessary measures to ensure effectively the common good”.

From the Agency insist that the treatments should only be used according to the purposes in connection with the control of the epidemic, such as providing usage information of application of self-assessment, or to make maps of statistics according to location. These treatments only make the Ministry of Health and the Ministries of Health of the Autonomous Communities, that data may be transferred between them.

With respect to what data can be transferred to the operators, from the AEPD only speak the telephone number for the purposes of the geolocation“except that the Ministry of Health considers it imperative to provide some other data for the purposes of tracking the disease.” In conclusion, the message is that

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The AEPD is positioned on the applications of the coronavirus: can’t suspend the right to the protection of data

it was originally published in

Engadget

by
Antonio Sabán

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