Data Protection Issues during of Covid-19 Contact Tracing Apps

You need to take care of yourself well. Coronavirus is a serious disease that can easily take away your life. Since its outbreak, it has spread over many parts of the world. Don’t forget it has no cure, and that makes it tricky. While no cure yet, many governments have tried to curb its spread in many ways. There is the use of contact tracing that has been widely used. Many contact tracing apps have been created to help control the spread of coronavirus.

But contact tracing apps have not been the only solution. You are expected to maintain social distance, sanitize yourself regularly, and hand washing. That way, you will be certain about being safe. Life matters a lot, and you need to adhere to set healthy guidelines. That way, you can avoid being infected.

You may be wondering how contact tracing apps are helping in controlling the spread of COVID 19. The disease spreads with ease when you come near a person infected, and you are not wearing protective gear. Once you get the disease, chances are you will interact with so many people, and you are going to infect them.

Contact tracing apps and personal data protection

1. Privacy of personal health data

Have you interacted with contact tracing apps? What kind of data have e you given about your health. Well, the app will have many queries that that touch about your health. Tracing people is vital since they may have gotten the virus by interacting with the infected persons.

But the big question is, will that data about your health be safe? It’s a data protection issue that is worth addressing. That will ensure the people’s private health data is secured. Have you gone through data privacy law in your country? You can be sure that it is against the law to make your personal health data public without your permission.

While some contact tracing apps have been made to protect your health data through their design, some may not be that secure. That may expose your privacy, which goes against your right.

2. Personal security and contact tracing apps

You may not be aware. The contact tracing apps will collect data about your location, neighbors, and relatives. Do you wonder how that can be a problem for you? It may be a great risk to the safety of your family.

What if someone with a sinister motive can access data about your place of residence? They may track you and hard you. With contact tracing apps having data about where you live and the people you live with, it’s easy to find you. Even your family members are at risk. They can be traced through the location data you give through those apps and abducted.

So, it’s a serious concern about the contact tracing apps and personal safety. The apps need to be designed well to enhance safety. That way, they won’t risk the security people whose location data has been taken through apps.

3. Contact tracing apps and centralizing of data.

Once data is taken, it’s stored in a central place. There is a database where all the information collected through contact tracing is kept. Is the database secure enough? With the advance in technology, it has become easy to hack a database. That way, one can access your data with ease. A hacker doesn’t have good intentions with your data, which increases risks. Once accessed, that data may be used in the wrong way.

The safety of contact tracing data is a concern that has arisen during COVD19. Can the person who isn’t allowed access that sensitive data gotten through apps? Some contact tracing apps and the database where your data is kept may be safe. But others aren’t secure enough to protect against hacking. That way, people may access your data without permission.

4. Contact tracing apps data and data user control

None one is supposed to collect your data without permission. With contact tracing apps, some may misuse the COVID 19 issue and get your data under duress. Some governments have passed data protection laws. Anyone who collects your data should inform you how data will be used. Besides, you are supposed to control how your data is going to be applied.

But with Covid-19 and contact tracing apps, will you know how your data will be used?? Is it possible for you to control how your information will be used, and for what purpose? You can be sure it’s a big task for you to do.

Has your information has been collected through those contact tracing apps? You won’t have any power to control how it will be used. Your data can be used in the wrong way. It’s not easy to tell even for how long that data will be kept within their databases.

5. Purpose limitation and data minimization

The contact tracing apps collect your data for health purposes. But there is a rising issue about using your data for other purposes. Privacy advocates have been at the forefront to ensure the safety of personal data. They urge the app developers to exercise openness with users about the role of contact tracing apps. Only the minimum and essential data should be collected to achieve the intended goal. Personal data can be changed into money. Businesses will offer money to get data for purposes of advertising. So any data acquired through contact tracing apps shouldn’t be used for other roles than health matters.

Conclusion

The outbreak of COVID-19 has been a threat to existence. That’s why the counties across the world are racing against time to curb the spread of that disease. One way your country and many others are using s contact tracing apps. They help to find those who may have interacted with you as an infected person. The method has been beneficial. But they have raised several issues linked to data gotten through the contact tracing apps.

Author bio

Naman Modi is a Professional Blogger, SEO Expert & Guest blogger at NamanModi.com, He is an Award-Winning Freelancer & Web Entrepreneur helping new entrepreneurs launch their first successful online business.

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