On Wednesday, 8 April, the Council of Europe called on its 47 Member States to apply a comprehensive ‘precautionary approach’ to using algorithms to counter the COVID-19 pandemic.
Automated algorithmic systems “are being used for prediction, diagnosis and research on vaccines and treatments”, notes the Committee of Ministers (CM) in a press release for the recommendation, and they are “being discussed in a growing number of Member States” to implement “enhanced digital tracking measures” for citizens.
In view of the complexity of algorithms and the speed and scale of their development, the guidelines issued by the CM call on governments to “be aware of the human rights impacts of these processes and put in place effective risk-management mechanisms”, including “the refusal of certain systems when their deployment leads to high risks of irreversible damage or when, due to their opacity, human control and oversight become impractical”.
Member States are also called upon to “adopt legislation, policies and practices” designed to “prevent [...] human rights violations” in this regard.
Link to the recommendation: https://bit.ly/2JOaHTM (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)