Digital tech used to trace Covid-19 patients should not step on human rights: Amnesty International

Amnesty International has urged government to ensure that the use of digital technology, including cellphone data to track down individuals suspected of having Covid-19, is done in line with human rights.

“We, the undersigned organisations, urge governments to show leadership in tackling the pandemic in a way that ensures that the use of digital technologies to track and monitor individuals and populations is carried out strictly in line with human rights,” the organisation said in a statement.

The statement comes as the health department on Thursday gazetted regulations with an objective to“enable the tracing of people who are known or reasonably suspected to have come into contact with any person known or reasonably suspected to have contracted Covid-19”.

The database, TimesLIVE earlier reported, will include the name and surname of the person, their ID number, address, cellphone number as well as the outcome of their Covid-19 test. Location data can also be used to support tracing efforts. However, interception of communication is not allowed.

Cellphone companies will assist government by providing the location and movement of anyone known or reasonably suspected to have contracted Covid-19. This does not include disclosure of contents of conversations.

Communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams also assured the nation in her address on Thursday evening that the government will not spy on people. She reiterated that the information will only be used to trace those who have the virus.

Amnesty International, however, says states cannot disregard rights such as privacy and freedom of expression in the name of tackling a public health crisis.

“These are extraordinary times, but human rights law still applies. Indeed, the human rights framework is designed to ensure that different rights can be carefully balanced to protect individuals and wider societies,” the organisation said.

Amnesty International called on countries to not respond to the Covid-19 pandemic with increased digital surveillance unless they meet the following conditions:

• Surveillance measures adopted to address the pandemic must be lawful, necessary and proportionate. They must be provided for by law and must be justified by legitimate public health objectives, as determined by the appropriate public health authorities, and be proportionate to those needs. Governments must be transparent about the measures they are taking so that they can be scrutinised and if appropriate later modified, retracted, or overturned. The Covid-19 pandemic cannot be allowed to serve as an excuse for indiscriminate mass surveillance.

• If governments expand monitoring and surveillance powers then such powers must be time-bound, and only continue for as long as necessary to address the current pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic cannot be allowed to serve as an excuse for indefinite surveillance.

• States must ensure that increased collection, retention, and aggregation of personal data, including health data, is only used for the purposes of responding to the Covid-19 pandemic. Data collected, retained, and aggregated to respond to the pandemic must be limited in scope, time-bound in relation to the pandemic and must not be used for commercial or any other purposes. The Covid-19 pandemic cannot be allowed to serve as an excuse to gut individual’s right to privacy.

• Governments must take every effort to protect people’s data, including ensuring sufficient security of any personal data collected and of any devices, applications, networks, or services involved in collection, transmission, processing, and storage. Any claims that data is anonymous must be based on evidence and supported with sufficient information regarding how it has been anonymised. We cannot allow attempts to respond to this pandemic to be used as justification for compromising people’s digital safety.

• Any use of digital surveillance technologies in responding to Covid-19, including big data and artificial intelligence systems, must address the risk that these tools will facilitate discrimination and other rights abuses against racial minorities, people living in poverty, and other marginalised populations, whose needs and lived realities may be obscured or misrepresented in large data sets. The Covid-19 pandemic cannot be allowed to further increase the gap in the enjoyment of human rights between different groups in society.

• If governments enter into data sharing agreements with other public or private sector entities, they must be based on law, and the existence of these agreements and information necessary to assess their impact on privacy and human rights must be publicly disclosed — in writing, with sunset clauses, public oversight and other safeguards by default. Businesses involved in efforts by governments to tackle Covid-19 must undertake due diligence to ensure they respect human rights, and ensure any intervention is firewalled from other business and commercial interests. The pandemic cannot serve as an excuse for keeping people in the dark about what information their governments are gathering and sharing with third parties.

• Any response must incorporate accountability protections and safeguards against abuse. Increased surveillance efforts related to Covid-19 should not fall under the domain of security or intelligence agencies and must be subject to effective oversight by appropriate independent bodies. Further, individuals must be given the opportunity to know about and challenge any Covid-19 related measures to collect, aggregate, and retain, and use data.

• Individuals who have been subjected to surveillance must have access to effective remedies. Covid-19 related responses that include data collection efforts should include means for free, active, and meaningful participation of relevant stakeholders, in particular experts in the public health sector and the most marginalised population groups.