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1title: Joint civil society statement: States use of digital surveillance technologies to fight pandemic must respect human rights
2date: 2020-04-03 00:01:03
3updated: 2020-04-03 00:01:03
4author: 46halbe
5tags: update, pressemitteilung
6
7The COVID-19 pandemic is a global public health emergency that requires a coordinated and large-scale response by governments worldwide. However, States’ efforts to contain the virus must not be used as a cover to usher in a new era of greatly expanded systems of invasive digital surveillance.
8
9<!-- TEASER_END -->
10
11We, the undersigned organizations, urge governments to show leadership
12in tackling the pandemic in a way that ensures that the use of digital
13technologies to track and monitor individuals and populations is carried
14out strictly in line with human rights.
15
16Technology can and should play an important role during this effort to
17save lives, such as to spread public health messages and increase access
18to health care. However, an increase in non-consensual state digital
19surveillance powers, such as obtaining access to mobile phone location
20data, threatens privacy, freedom of expression and freedom of
21association, in ways that could violate rights and degrade trust in
22public authorities – undermining the effectiveness of any public health
23response. Such measures also pose a risk of discrimination and may
24disproportionately harm already marginalized communities.
25
26These are extraordinary times, but human rights law still applies.
27Indeed, the human rights framework is designed to ensure that different
28rights can be carefully balanced to protect individuals and wider
29societies. States cannot simply disregard rights such as privacy and
30freedom of expression in the name of tackling a public health crisis. On
31the contrary, protecting human rights also promotes public health. Now
32more than ever, governments must rigorously ensure that any restrictions
33to these rights is in line with long-established human rights
34safeguards.
35
36This crisis offers an opportunity to demonstrate our shared humanity. We
37can make extraordinary efforts to fight this pandemic that are
38consistent with human rights standards and the rule of law. The
39decisions that governments make now to confront the pandemic will shape
40what the world looks like in the future.
41
42We call on all governments not to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic with
43increased digital surveillance unless the following conditions are met:
44
451. Surveillance measures adopted to address the pandemic must be
46 lawful, necessary and proportionate. They must be provided for by
47 law and must be justified by legitimate public health objectives, as
48 determined by the appropriate public health authorities, and be
49 proportionate to those needs. Governments must be transparent about
50 the measures they are taking so that they can be scrutinized and if
51 appropriate later modified, retracted, or overturned. We cannot
52 allow the COVID-19 pandemic to serve as an excuse for indiscriminate
53 mass surveillance.
542. If governments expand monitoring and surveillance powers then such
55 powers must be time-bound, and only continue for as long as
56 necessary to address the current pandemic. We cannot allow the
57 COVID-19 pandemic to serve as an excuse for indefinite surveillance.
583. States must ensure that increased collection, retention, and
59 aggregation of personal data, including health data, is only used
60 for the purposes of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Data
61 collected, retained, and aggregated to respond to the pandemic must
62 be limited in scope, time-bound in relation to the pandemic and must
63 not be used for commercial or any other purposes. We cannot allow
64 the COVID-19 pandemic to serve as an excuse to gut individual’s
65 right to privacy.
664. Governments must take every effort to protect people’s data,
67 including ensuring sufficient security of any personal data
68 collected and of any devices, applications, networks, or services
69 involved in collection, transmission, processing, and storage. Any
70 claims that data is anonymous must be based on evidence and
71 supported with sufficient information regarding how it has been
72 anonymized. We cannot allow attempts to respond to this pandemic to
73 be used as justification for compromising people’s digital safety.
745. Any use of digital surveillance technologies in responding to
75 COVID-19, including big data and artificial intelligence systems,
76 must address the risk that these tools will facilitate
77 discrimination and other rights abuses against racial minorities,
78 people living in poverty, and other marginalized populations, whose
79 needs and lived realities may be obscured or misrepresented in large
80 datasets. We cannot allow the COVID-19 pandemic to further increase
81 the gap in the enjoyment of human rights between different groups in
82 society.
836. If governments enter into data sharing agreements with other public
84 or private sector entities, they must be based on law, and the
85 existence of these agreements and information necessary to assess
86 their impact on privacy and human rights must be publicly disclosed
87 – in writing, with sunset clauses, public oversight and other
88 safeguards by default. Businesses involved in efforts by governments
89 to tackle COVID-19 must undertake due diligence to ensure they
90 respect human rights, and ensure any intervention is firewalled from
91 other business and commercial interests. We cannot allow the
92 COVID-19 pandemic to serve as an excuse for keeping people in the
93 dark about what information their governments are gathering and
94 sharing with third parties.
957. Any response must incorporate accountability protections and
96 safeguards against abuse. Increased surveillance efforts related to
97 COVID-19 should not fall under the domain of security or
98 intelligence agencies and must be subject to effective oversight by
99 appropriate independent bodies. Further, individuals must be given
100 the opportunity to know about and challenge any COVID-19 related
101 measures to collect, aggregate, and retain, and use data.
102 Individuals who have been subjected to surveillance must have access
103 to effective remedies.
1048. COVID-19 related responses that include data collection efforts
105 should include means for free, active, and meaningful participation
106 of relevant stakeholders, in particular experts in the public health
107 sector and the most marginalized population groups.
108
109[All
110Signatories](https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/02/joint-civil-society-statement-states-use-digital-surveillance-technologies-fight)
111of this joint statement.