Privacy in the Midst of COVID-19 Pandemic

Privacy in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic

Baksheesh Sachar

Suggested citation: Sachar B. (2021). Privacy in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic. Moolya Magazine.

January2021 Issue/WS/PolicyBrief/2021

Winter School Policy Brief

Executive Summary

The COVID-19 Pandemic has given a smokescreen excuse to governments

across the world to collect information from citizens. But privacy remains to be an unanswered question for contact tracing through the Arogya Setu application. Although, collection of information for the benefit of the public at large ;khjhis essential for contact tracing of COVID-19 cases, the privacy of citizens

cannot be at stake. The Puttaswamy Judgement held the ‘Right to Privacy' as a fundamental right for citizens of India. As the COVID-Author19 pandemic unfolds, Name it is

essential to find technological solutions for contact tracing without risking the privacy of millions of citizens. Designation

Email ID

Date of Submission

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Introduction

Right to Privacy and Data Security of people has been a compelling issue in recent times. The havoc spread through the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted governments globally towards contact tracing. COVID-19 has given a smokescreen excuse for the government to collect data on the name of ‘Public Health. So, it is essential to combat the pandemic but not at the cost of privacy of millions. As ruled by the supreme court’s Puttaswamy judgment (2017), the Right to Privacy is a fundamental right in India. While we may lack a Data Protection law yet, safeguarding the privacy of citizens is essential.

Contact tracing has been an essential part of public health response strategy for decades. Ignoring it for responding to COVID-19 is inappropriate. The unique challenge with COVID-19 is that the spread of pandemic has outstripped the capacity of manual contact tracing with the speed of transmission. There happened different measures of contact tracing in History, but the 21st century needs a technological solution that can handle the mammoth spread of the pandemic.

Tracking public health through technology

Governments and technology experts need to discuss how we can leverage technology that allows us to do contact tracing better at a larger scale more efficiently while maintaining and respecting individual privacy. The current use of contact tracing in India has been risking the personal data of more than 100 million users. The application essentially functions on a google server while the app data hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS). A weak privacy policy is a point of concern that does not mention any department or ministry essentially owns the data storage is in the hands of corporate giants. Unlike Aarogya Setu, Singapore’s application, Trace Together functions only on Bluetooth based technology as recommended by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) framework. At the time of crisis, google and apple have collaborated and built an Application Programming Interface (API) technology that will store the user data anonymously. Public health agencies and governments may use this technology to develop their applications.

The essential cornerstone of success for any contact tracing application lies in gaining the trust of potential users who fear sharing their data elsewhere after the pandemic is over. As per regulations, it is compulsory to install the application and have a safe status for anyone to travel through flights and trains. This may add temporary users who may download the application to surpass the security procedure and uninstall the same after the travel. To gain long-term buy-in from users for the application, building trust through basic principles such as data minimization, purpose limitation, and transparency is necessary. As a much-appreciated move, the development of the application is on open source. In addition, saving data anonymously will further help build trust through using encryption at rest and encryption in transit mechanisms.

During the 19th century, contact tracing was largely limited to manually tracing contact of sick person’s trail of locations and persons interacted with through human interview process. Considering the scale of the pandemic, only technological contact tracing through application-based mechanisms is not sufficient to efficiently track potential suspected cases. I strongly believe that there is a need for a human in the loop of current contact tracing procedures to improve efficiency.

Only contact tracing will not help in combating the pandemic unless it is complemented with widespread testing, as recommended by the Centre for Disease control, USA as well. The pandemic seems to be a smokescreen excuse for governments to collect data. If we have to trace the

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suspected cases, it will need human-led contact tracing support along with the existing application- based measures.

In a Government Technology Agency, Singapore’s whitepaper titled, ‘Blue trace: A privacy-preserving protocol for community-driven contact tracing across borders’ highlights challenges of the decentralized contact tracing approach. Paper considers a situation where users falsely declare themselves as COVID-19 positive which consequently causes unnecessary anxiety and fear among other users who were in close contact with wrongly declared users. Humans in the loop vs Humans out of the loop section of the document quotes that, “Since Bluetooth-based contact tracing solutions do not, by themselves, record location/environment data, this information needs to be obtained through other means — a human-led contact tracing interview.”

Conclusion

While many advocates for deleting the data collected after completion of retention time, it is of paramount importance for policymakers to understand that the pandemic may have a resurgence in the near future where data-driven policymaking will help in making informed decisions.

As we move forward in this battle with the pandemic, being cautiously optimistic is the way forward when the use of contact tracing is concerned in fighting this pandemic on various fronts. Governments will need to take measures to improve technology in terms of securing the privacy of users and gaining their trust. It is required to strike a balance between safeguarding privacy and tackling the pandemic. Finding a solution in such circumstances needs to stick to maintaining fine harmony between monitoring and civil rights.

References

(2017). Supreme Court’s Puttaswamy judgement on privacy. Mohit Saini; Aakash Mehrotra. (2020). Walking the tightrope: Privacy risks in India’s contact tracing app. The Diplomat. Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT) framework: Private automated contact tracing. (2020). Apple and google partner on COVID-19 contact tracing technology. Apple Newsroom. Forbes India. (2020). Aarogya Setu is now open source. PIB. (2019). Centre for disease control (CDC) (2020). BlueTrace: A privacy-preserving protocol for community-driven contact tracing across borders. Government Technology Agency Singapore.

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Key Highlights ABOUT MOOLYA FOUNDATION

Moolya Foundation is a global non-profit organisation that aims to bring greater inclusivity in public affairs through digital leadership. The mission of Moolya Foundation is to expand the conversation surrounding public affairs and empower every citizen in the digital age. In our endeavour to make the world a more inclusive place, we look forward to engaging with like-minded individuals and organisations. Email ID: [email protected]

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Baksheesh is graduate from Ambedkar University Delhi and Post-graduate from Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Baksheesh is working in the development sector with UNDP on an assignment which aims to formalise the informal economy of waste pickers in India while also providing social security to the waste pickers (Safai Saathis) across 15 cities of India. In addition, Baksheesh has been co-leading research team of Jal se Jalashay campaign which aims to advocate for revival of Delhi's water bodies and rejuvenation of Groundwater with a strategy through a people's movement in Delhi. Baksheesh has been making short films on socially relevant issues and short research assignments as a sidekick. Made a short film on Yamuna River and differently abled community of Shimla. Currently working on initiating a YouTube channel to provide support for early career professionals.

Email ID: [email protected]

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