Friday, May 15, 2020
Legislation call on COVID-19 app data
The Guardian reports that the Parliamentary joint committee on human rights (JCHR) has taken the unusual step of producing a draft bill for the government to pass as soon as possible that would require the government to delete all the data it captures using the NHS Covid-19 contact-tracing app after the pandemic ends, and prevent it from using the information gathered for any other purpose than fighting Covid-19.
They say that the impending release of Apple and Google software for building decentralised contact-tracing apps will put more pressure on the government, which took the controversial decision to forge its own path and build a centralised app, in part because it was concerned that the Apple/Google system would not be ready in time:
The decision to go it alone was driven by a belief that contact tracing could be carried out faster if users were allowed to self-diagnose, as well as a hope that the NHS could gather valuable insight from data collected by the app.
But the government has declined to guarantee that the data will be deleted after the pandemic is over. Matthew Gould, the head of NHSX, the health service’s digital transformation arm, told the JCHR that the data “will either be deleted or fully anonymised in line with the law, so that it can be used for research purposes”.
In its findings from a rapid inquiry, the JCHR said the government needed to commit to total deletion and legally bind itself to that promise. “We cannot rely on the current failed mishmash of protections that were never envisaged for this situation,” said the committee’s chair, Harriet Harman.
“We need new legislation. Government collection of our movements and physical contacts would have been unconscionable before, but now it is happening. Big powers demand big safeguards. The government should not resist their assurances being put into law. Parliament completed emergency legislation for new powers. It can do it now for new protections.”
If the government does not take up the JCHR bill, the committee has asked the leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, for special permission to let Harman move it as a private member’s bill.
This seems to be a reasonable request by the committee, after all what use will this information be to the government once the pandemic ends? More to the point, if this app is to work then people need to have confidence in it. The fact that information put into the app is being stored centrally by the government does not instil that confidence.
They say that the impending release of Apple and Google software for building decentralised contact-tracing apps will put more pressure on the government, which took the controversial decision to forge its own path and build a centralised app, in part because it was concerned that the Apple/Google system would not be ready in time:
The decision to go it alone was driven by a belief that contact tracing could be carried out faster if users were allowed to self-diagnose, as well as a hope that the NHS could gather valuable insight from data collected by the app.
But the government has declined to guarantee that the data will be deleted after the pandemic is over. Matthew Gould, the head of NHSX, the health service’s digital transformation arm, told the JCHR that the data “will either be deleted or fully anonymised in line with the law, so that it can be used for research purposes”.
In its findings from a rapid inquiry, the JCHR said the government needed to commit to total deletion and legally bind itself to that promise. “We cannot rely on the current failed mishmash of protections that were never envisaged for this situation,” said the committee’s chair, Harriet Harman.
“We need new legislation. Government collection of our movements and physical contacts would have been unconscionable before, but now it is happening. Big powers demand big safeguards. The government should not resist their assurances being put into law. Parliament completed emergency legislation for new powers. It can do it now for new protections.”
If the government does not take up the JCHR bill, the committee has asked the leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, for special permission to let Harman move it as a private member’s bill.
This seems to be a reasonable request by the committee, after all what use will this information be to the government once the pandemic ends? More to the point, if this app is to work then people need to have confidence in it. The fact that information put into the app is being stored centrally by the government does not instil that confidence.
