Andy Greenberg reports: WHEN THE NOTION of enlisting smartphones to help fight the Covid-19 pandemic first surfaced last spring, it sparked a months-long debate: Should apps collect location data, which could help with contact tracing but potentially reveal sensitive information? Or should they take a more limited approach, only measuring Bluetooth-based proximity to other phones? Now, a broad…
Category: Healthcare
Harris County Public Health to conduct survey, go door-to-door to collect blood (updated)
Oh my. Joe Cadillic sent along a news item posted by Click2Houston that says that representatives of Harris County Public Health (HCPH) will be going door-to-door to randomly selected homes, collecting blood samples to determine the presence of COVID-19 antibodies. Now before you panic totally, the county’s statement mentions that the blood collection will be…
French Data Protection Authority Rules on Transfers of Health Data
Gaspard Terray of Foley Hoag discusses last month’s ruling in France that was previously mentioned on this site: The French Conseil d’Etat handed down an important decision October, 13th regarding privacy and personal data protection. This decision comes in the wake of the “Schrems II” ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which…
More than half of the Dutch population expressed privacy concerns relating to the coronavirus app
K.w. Wesselink writes: According to research by University of Twente researchers, last summer, 68% of Dutch people were moderately to very concerned about possible privacy issues resulting from the type of information a coronavirus app collects. In addition to privacy-related concerns, many citizens were also worried that an app might create a false sense of…