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HOW ANONYMIZATION MAY MASK HEALTH DATA IN COVID-19 CRISIS
Abstract
In an actual pandemic situation as part of COVID-19 crisis European Union face the challenge of data masking in the processing of sensitive data. European officials race to get a handle on COVID-19, the importance of collecting and sharing health data has never been poses many challenges for officials and national systems. The virus’ unpredictable and widespread nature makes tracing and testing critical to understanding transmission and treatment. Yet, this also poses a threat to personal health data: with data being collected in as many as 500 cities, millions of individual records are at stake. Straightforward techniques, is an effective way to enhance health data security. Data privacy is very essential attribute for information sharing in cloud applications. Privacy enhanced techniques (“PETs”) allow online users to protect the privacy of their personally identifiable information (“PII”) provided to and handled by services or applications. However, if there isn’t enough data to anonymize indirect identifiers, lines of data may have to be redacted, making them unusable. Researchers therefore walk a fine line between privacy and utility, but one that is necessary from a legal and ethical standpoint. In our article we will look in details at the situation of Slovak mobile application Moje eZdravie and the trivial vulnerability that allowed ethical hackers from Nethemba to obtain personal information about more than 390,000 patients who were tested for Covid-19 in Slovakia (for the demonstration this institution has access to get personal information about more than 130,000 patients, of which more than 1600 COVID-19 positive). If the state cannot protect the personal information of all people tested on COVID-19, why do we think it can protect the sensitive location data it can obtain from mobile operators? Mobile location data programs to combat COVID-19 may not be scientifically necessary and could lead to human rights abuses if they are not equipped with effective safeguards to protect privacy.
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References12
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