{"id":34266,"date":"2020-04-06T18:18:02","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T18:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/packetstormsecurity.com\/news\/view\/31096\/Data-Watchdog-Calls-For-Single-EU-Coronavirus-App.html"},"modified":"2020-04-06T18:18:02","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T18:18:02","slug":"data-watchdog-calls-for-single-eu-coronavirus-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/data-watchdog-calls-for-single-eu-coronavirus-app\/","title":{"rendered":"Data Watchdog Calls For Single EU Coronavirus App"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Media caption<\/span>WATCH: Why UK experts are urging the rollout of a coronavirus app<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Europe’s data protection watchdog has called for a single coronavirus app to be used across the EU, instead of every country making its own.<\/p>\n

Several countries are developing tracking apps, but privacy advocates warn of the dangers they might pose.<\/p>\n

The European Data Protection Supervisor says a single EU app with strong data protection built in is the best solution to the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

“We will not be able to solve it with national tools only,” he warned.<\/p>\n

Wojciech Wiewiorowski said the EU’s main privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation, allowed the processing of sensitive private information when it was in the interest of public health.<\/p>\n

But he said “big data means big responsibility”.<\/p>\n

Mr Wiewiorowski’s native Poland has come in for some criticism for its quarantine app, which tracks the user’s location while they are in compulsory self-isolation.<\/p>\n

US-based digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation has warned<\/a> that world governments “are demanding extraordinary new surveillance powers” to try to contain the virus. Such powers must expire once the crisis is over, it says.<\/p>\n

Ireland is expected to roll out an app in the next two weeks on a voluntary basis. The UK, which has now left the EU, is considering its own solution.<\/p>\n