Privacy Aspects of Contact Tracing Applications in Europe and Recommendations for Their Future Use

Abstract

The first global pandemic in the age of digitalism indicated that there might be new types of privacy risks stemming from the processing activities taking place within the scope of digital contact tracing activities. While the right to life of all individuals living in the community should be primarily protected, their right to privacy should also be considered. Therefore, a balance between privacy and public health should be struck by both regulators and data controllers. The purpose of this review is to analyze the compliance efforts of data controllers in Europe with the existing EU data protection regulations, and guidance, and draw lessons for the use of contact tracing applications within the scope of potential disaster scenarios that may arise in the future by reviewing the existing literature and the privacy policies of the applications.