Massive invasion of privacy as a sensible step in the fight against the coronavirus?
A1, an Austrian mobile phone provider, transmits the movement flows of mobile phone users to the government - The most important thing to start with: The Austrian mobile phone provider A1 compares current movement flows of users with those before the exit restrictions came into force in order to contain the pandemic. According to A1, the data is transmitted anonymously. Experts see no legal basis for this.
Analysis of movement streams
Cell phones provide an enormous amount of data. Austria's largest mobile communications company is now using this to track and compare the movement flows of its users before and after the exit restrictions and to transmit the findings to the government. This is intended to show whether the restrictions within the population are really effective.
According to A1, the movement profiles are passed on anonymously and not linked to customer data.
Also, not individual people are tracked, but only groups of 20 or more people. The movement analyzes are offered by A1 and Invenium at TU Graz.
From a legal perspective, according to A1, there are no problems and this method is also GDPR-compliant. The transfer of the data is intended to help contain the spread of the coronavirus in Austria.
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No legal basis
However, Christof Tschohl, data protection lawyer at the Research Institute - Digital Human Rights Center, sees no legal basis for access to historical data because it would have to be constructed. For him, only short-term anonymization with extreme restrictions in accordance with the requirements of the GDPR would be conceivable.
“This means that at the same time as the deletion or anonymization of data after the connection has ended, information is 'extracted' from the provider's live system that is actually only anonymized,” Tschohl told the Standard.
He describes real anonymization as a “huge challenge,” which is proven again and again in data protection impact assessments.
“This is obviously about access to existing historical location data,” explains Tschohl.
The procedure cannot be derived from either a telecommunications law or an epidemic law.
“From a human perspective, you can understand that.
But: The constitutional state otherwise demands precision for good reasons, and the Constitutional Court shows that this is strictly adhered to. I find it very problematic that this is being thrown overboard because things have to happen quickly. As a fundamental rights activist, I insist on creating a regulation just for this case - which then also becomes ineffective with a clause." This could also happen very quickly, "if the experts from the ministry and parliament want it."
Tschohl is of the opinion that this case calls for a special measure.
Massive invasion of privacy
The Neos express concerns about this approach and will submit parliamentary questions.
Niki Scherak, deputy club chairman of the party, points out: “The government has gained a lot of power in the last few days by limiting the freedom of Austrians to a minimum for understandable reasons. Nevertheless, she now has to deal with it damn responsibly. What must not happen under any circumstances is an exhaustion of these powers to the point of possible abuse of power. There is a massive invasion of people’s privacy here.”
China monitors and assigns color codes
Similar monitoring is currently underway in China.
Tech giants have released apps that can track a person's movements back for up to a month. Depending on how close a person came to a high-risk zone, color codes are assigned: green, yellow or red.
In some cities this is now being applied in such a way that people have to show the color code to security staff before using public transport. Taxi drivers, hotels and other businesses in Wenzhou also ask for the code before allowing people to pass.
Many citizens criticize this approach in the sense that it takes over surveillance measures for the Communist Party. However, what leads to the most complaints is that the status often changes from green to red for inexplicable reasons, which can lead to a mandatory quarantine of 14 days.
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Similar measures in other countries
In Israel, the cabinet has also decided to monitor coronavirus infected people and suspected cases via geotracking.
The movements of users who were nearby should also be tracked. Mass surveillance is the result. The Ministry of Justice first wanted to get the measures through Parliament, but this was then bypassed.
Italy and Belgium are discussing similar measures. In addition to smartphone tracking, South Korea's government also includes data from credit card transactions of infected people and surveillance camera recordings in its data pool.
Source: Der Standard
Article image: Shutterstock / By SFIO CRACHO
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