Abstract
COVID-19 is a global pandemic, and the world’s first ‘digital pandemic’. The response to the disease has seen the development of digital tools to track, trace and analyse the virus, and we have seen a rapid scale-up in the use of digital health.[1] An effective COVID-19 response is contingent on timely access to personal data.[2] These data can be used to identify COVID-19 hotspots and guide national and localised responses, but importantly, can also be used in the development of tests, treatments and vaccines. The use of these personal data in responding to COVID-19 is essential, but their use impacts the right to privacy and risks stigmatising and discriminating against individual, group and minority populations. Other risks can also arise depending on the context in which the personal data are used, and the vulnerabilities of the individual or population.[3] There is a clear public interest in enabling access to, sharing and use of personal data to respond to COVID-19, but there is an equally clear public interest in ensuring that the use of these personal data is rooted in human rights, including the right to privacy, the right to health and life and the right to economic and social development. Thus the use of personal data during COVID-19 brings to the fore a critical question in access to and use of personal data: how do we balance individual rights with collective interests in the use of personal data to respond to a public health crisis?