Digital Transformation in Healthcare and Surveillance Capitalism: Comparative Assessment of Data and Privacy Protection Compliance across the European Union

Abstract

Protection of personal data is a fundamental right Article 8(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the ‘Charter’) and Article 16(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Furthermore, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force in May 2018, clearly states that health-related personal data, which includes all past, present and future data must be treated and handled as sensitive information. Article (51) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) further stated that accessing and handling of such sensitive data, most importantly by third parties should be subject to specific protection as the context of their processing could create significant risks to the persons' fundamental rights and freedoms. In this era of digital economy, adherence to the GDPR by all parties is more important than ever. As businesses and governments rely heavily on private data to track or monitor the health of the people, including their movement and habits, or to develop and modify existing business models, and to discover new market opportunities, such and all similar approaches should be in-line with the above-mentioned regulations, charter and treaty. In the health sector as this research will show, there is a rapid increase in accessing sensitive personal data by businesses, third parties and different government agencies, which in most situations leaves the owner of the data vulnerable to abuse. Statistics have shown that Europe has recorded 1.92 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, with an infection rate estimated to be 218 cases per 100,000 population (Statista, 2020). The need for contact tracing with personal data by businesses and governments to limit and if possible contain the spread of the virus is no longer news, as the research will further show. Nevertheless, there is a need to ensure that an individual’s right to privacy must be guaranteed during and after these challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic.