The critical component of UK’s Covid-19 recovery effort is that it has been operating months from now without taking into account how people’s data could be abused and misused by third parties. The UK government has admitted that the tracing and tracking program is unlawful and the chances for the misuse of data cannot be sidelined completely.
The concession granted by the UK government now follows a proper legal action from various free speech and privacy organizations, including the Open Rights Group (ORG). The organization has also issued a letter to the Department of Health and Social Care calling for the complete publication for the whole tracing and testing system
Ravi said, “They have now admitted Test and Trace was deployed unlawfully. By failing to conduct the appropriate assessment, all the data that has been collected – and continues to be collected – is tainted. It is a concern that it took the threat of legal proceedings to force this admission, rather than just doing the DPIA before deploying the system or at least when we first asked.”
UK Government’s Legal Team said, “The primary focus of all of those involved in the Programme has been to ensure it functions effectively to save lives and protect public health.”
“The absence of a DPIA for every aspect of the programme cannot be and should not be equated with a failure to ensure that the protection of personal data has been an important part of the programme’s design and implementation,” it added.
Executive Director of Open Rights Group, Jim Killock said, “We can only conclude that they do not understand the risks they are running and have failed to understand the importance of mitigating data protection risks,” Killock says. “It also speaks to the need for the Information Commissioner’s Office [ICO] to take regulatory action rather than acting as a ‘critical friend.”
Cheyenne Cox is a news report covering multiple Market and economy News. She is creative and highly professional writer. Cheyenne holds a degree in communication and journalism and has also a Diploma in digital marketing. She belongs to south Africa who has also lived in Europe and is currently based in the US.
