The head of the EU Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee says the group is monitoring efforts to use smartphone data tracking to fight COVID-19.
“Even in these exceptional times, the EU’s data protection principles, namely the General Data Protection Rules (GDPR) and the e-Privacy Directive, must continue to apply and be respected,” said Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D, ES), the Chair of the EC Civil Liberties Committee.
“The Civil Liberties Committee is following these developments closely because of the serious risks that such tools may imply for an individual’s fundamental rights to a private life and data protection,” he said.
“The European Data Protection Supervisor and the European Data Protection Board have stressed that as long as the information shared with national authorities is anonymized and does not allow for individuals to be identified in any way, it can be used. However, strong security measures regarding the use, access and storage of the information as well as strict retention periods must be implemented,” he added.