Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1243341
6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 3 MAY 2020 CORONAVIRUS CRISIS MATTHEW VELLA WHAT'S all the fuss with con- tact-tracing apps, asks lawyer and University of Malta lectur- er Mireille M. Caruana (MT2, page 11), who is standing up to privacy campaigners on opposi- tion to the use of mobile phone apps to trace people who might have contracted COVID-19. "If we let privacy stand in the way of effectively controlling a pandemic, we would be doing nothing more than giving pri- vacy a bad name. Yes, crises like the 9/11 terror attacks or the London bombings have sparked surveillance legislation in the past. But the fundamental rights to privacy and data protection are not absolute. We give up some of our privacy to feel safe and secure all the time," Caruana said, in a reaction to an interview that United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy Prof. Joe Cannataci gave to MaltaToday. "You agree to constant mon- itoring on the London Under- ground if it means you are safe. This poses challenging ques- tions about trade-offs. Govern- ments are tasked with ensur- ing fundamental rights while promoting other countervail- ing public interests like public health and, ultimately, the right to life." Contact-tracing apps could be used as a public health ini- tiative to combat the spread of COVID-19, by registering other users who came in close con- tact with a person who contracts COV- ID-19, by sending them a notification and asking them to self-isolate. But privacy advo- cates like Prof. Joe Cannataci have described smart- phone and other c o n t a c t - t r a c i n g apps as potentially being "amongst the most pri- vacy-intrusive developments in technology in the last twenty years". "Unless they are deployed very carefully and within the tight- est of constraints, they could be abused in order to introduce a level of surveillance which would make Orwell's Big Broth- er look like a forgetful kinder- garten assistant," Prof. Cannat- aci said. Now working on a study to be presented to the UN Gener- al Assembly in October, Prof. Cannataci also raised ques- tions on whether governments would even think of mothball- ing contact-tracing technolo- gies after COVID-19. "It's the control-freak's dream scenario and potentially a human rights nightmare," Cannataci stressed, warning that "it can make a to- talitarian ruler's dream of abso- lute control come true". At the core of the debate is whether the interference with human rights are justified and whether that interference is pro- portional to the aims of states faced with an unprecedented public health crisis. "The extent of privacy inva- siveness of a contact-tracing app is very much dependent on its in-built features, the system underlying the technology and how it is actually deployed. But in order to comply with the GD- PR, certain legal tests must be satisfied," Caruana said, outlin- ing an exhaustive list of criteria which she says would limit the invasiveness of the app. "Contact-tracing apps could be a vital tool in keeping the right people at home as govern- ments look to start their econ- omies back up again. Therefore, deployment of these tools must be undertaken quickly and with- out all the necessary evidence to justify their invasion of our pri- vacy," she insists. She also said privacy advocates would be unreasonable in in- sisting that an app should not be deployed unless there is con- clusive evidence of its efficacy in stopping the spread of COV- ID-19. "But what if it did significantly arrest the impact of COVID-19? Most people would conclude that the interference with our right to privacy would have been justified. While the ringing of a precautionary bell may well be expected, it would be wrong to assume that all contact-tracing apps are a disproportionate or an unjustified interference with our fundamental right to priva- cy," she said. Caruana said that what is of ut- most importance with such con- tact-tracing apps is transparen- cy and accountability: a detailed description and information about in-built privacy and se- curity safeguards must be made publicly available and analysed. Even the source code should be made available, and that the government heeds the advice of any such data protection impact assessment. "The Information and Data Protection Commissioner's Of- fice should have an enhanced role watching the implemen- tation closely, auditing the sys- tem, and investigating any com- plaints from the public. "The deployment of con- tact-tracing apps will require an unprecedented act of trust by users. Protocols should be followed to ensure fundamen- tal rights are protected and law should be enacted to put the app's use on a lawful basis. But if the app does what is promised, trusting technology will have played a fundamental part in controlling a pandemic. What we should avoid doing is enact- ing new surveillance laws in a time of crisis that actually out- live the crisis itself." EDITOR'S NOTE: the con- tact-tracing app discussed here has no connection to the COVID-19 self-assessment test which does not collect person- al data 'Don't let privacy stand in the way of pandemic' Stopping public health emergency through contract tracing app should trump privacy concerns, says technology law expert What Apple and Google have proposed Mireille Caruana: "If we let privacy stand in the way of effectively controlling a pandemic, we would be doing nothing more than giving privacy a bad name"