While encouraging the use of technology to combat the spread of coronavirus, the European Commission recommends that Member States follow a coordinated approach that respects fundamental freedoms. It is in this spirit that on Wednesday 8 April it presented a toolbox urging Member States to act in a transparent manner and in accordance with key principles.
The toolbox is based on two specific initiatives: a pan-European approach for the use of mobile applications, to be developed by 15 April, and a common mechanism for the use of anonymised and aggregated data on population mobility, including the deletion of data after 90 days or at least as soon as the pandemic is deemed to be under control. This work will be developed in the framework of the eHealth network and Member States will have to report to the Commission by 31 May.
A multiplicity of national initiatives
This Commission recommendation, which is about 15 pages long, is intended to provide a framework for the many public or private initiatives launched in the Member States in recent weeks.
“Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, various mobile applications have been developed, some of them by public authorities”, says the Commission. It points out that, while the effectiveness of such applications has generally not been evaluated, experts agree that applications aimed at informing and alerting users, whose effectiveness depends in particular on their degree of penetration, are a “promising avenue for preventing the spread of the virus”. These applications, the Commission summarises, fulfil three general functions: - to inform and advise citizens and to facilitate the organisation of medical follow-up for people with symptoms; - alerting people who have been in the vicinity of an infected person; - monitor and ensure the implementation of quarantine measures.
However, “some national measures raise the issue from the point of view of fundamental rights and freedoms”, notes the Commission. They can also, as highlighted by the World Health Organization, result in the stigmatisation of people with certain characteristics perceived to be related to the disease. One example is the application used in Poland to check that patients comply with quarantine measures, with the police being able to come to their homes if this is not the case.
No derogations from European values
In its recommendation, the European Commission recalls that any restrictions to fundamental rights must be justified and proportionate. They must also be temporary, limited to what is strictly necessary to combat the crisis and must not continue to exist without adequate justification after the crisis is over.
On the basis of these principles, it proposes that Member States develop a pan-European approach to the use of mobile applications. This would require the development of: - specifications to ensure the effectiveness of mobile information, alert and monitoring applications to combat the virus; - measures to prevent the proliferation of applications that are not compatible with European law; - governance mechanisms. Good practices should also be identified and shared with public bodies.
The Commission is also proposing a common mechanism for the use of anonymised and aggregated data on population mobility to model and predict the evolution of the disease, to monitor the effectiveness of the measures taken and to support a coordinated exit strategy from the crisis. This mechanism includes safeguards to prevent de-anonymisation and avoid re-identification of individuals or measures to immediately and irreversibly delete all accidentally processed data that could identify an individual. It also provides for the deletion of data, in principle after a period of 3 months (90 days) or, in any case, not after the pandemic has been deemed to be under control. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)