Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 July 2020
1049. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Health if a guarantee will be given that the Covid-19 tracker application does not share the location data, IP addresses or IMEI of persons who download same. [18930/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraOne of the key objectives of the Covid Tracker app was to ensure high levels of adoption by the general public so as to protect as many people as possible from the spread of the virus. This meant that people had to have trust in the app which in turn meant that privacy needed to be central to the design, development and operation of the app. The Irish Covid Tracker app does not share location data, IP address or IMIE data from users of the app.
People do have the choice of entering general location information when using the symptom checker but this data is not linked to them as an individual. It is simply used to inform heat maps of the spread of the virus and to assist in the rapid identification of emerging clusters.
The Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) was published by the HSE on 26 June 2020, along with the source code and provides transparency in relation to what data is collected and how it is processed.
All personal data that is processed by the COVID Tracker app is kept to an absolute minimum in order to preserve the privacy of users. Use of the app is voluntary and data that is provided to the health services is provided on the basis of consent and user preferences. The COVID Tracker app complies with European Commission recommendations and guidance in relation to Covid apps.
All design decisions have been assessed carefully from a data protection point of view. This led to the decision to switch from a centralised model to a more privacy preserving decentralised model during the development phase of the app. Decentralised apps do not store data centrally on HSE or Government servers. Instead, data is held on the users own smartphone.
Observations and guidance from the DPC was also sought and factored into the final design of the Covid Tracker app.
