digitalization
Privacy advocates: health data is not a ticket
Ulrich Kelber (SPD), Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI), presents the 30th activity report of the BfDI at the federal press conference. Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Proving that you have been vaccinated with a QR code: For many, this has become routine. The Federal Data Protection Commissioner can live with this practice – it should just not be continued indefinitely.
The Federal Data Protection Commissioner Ulrich Kelber has warned against using health data permanently for certain proofs of authorization.
In the corona pandemic, it has become commonplace to use an app to prove your vaccination status when entering restaurants, cinemas, stadiums and other public places. “That’s practical and, under the circumstances, also a data protection-friendly solution.” Under no circumstances should it become the standard that health data is used everywhere as a kind of admission ticket, Kelber said on Tuesday in Berlin when presenting his agency’s activity report.
It must also be prevented that employers gain permanent insight into sensitive data. “In the debate about compulsory vaccination in the workplace, we saw that some wished to be able to process more of this data permanently as an employer.” However, health data is a category that requires special protection. If this principle were violated, data would be disclosed to a third party with whom you already have an unequal power relationship. “This must not happen.”
Praise for the Corona warning app
Kelber found words of praise about the Corona warning app: “It is a reference, both technologically and in terms of data protection.” The app is designed for minimal data collection and focuses on the actual task, namely to point out a possible risk of infection, without going through health authorities and without delays.
Kelber rejected allegations that excessive data protection had hindered the containment of the corona pandemic. “The corona data that we obtained from Israel should also have been processed in Germany. However, they are not available here.” At the same time, other data would have to be strictly protected so that, for example, people with rare diseases could not be traced.
The data protection officer was critical of the politicians’ plans to rely on a central identification feature when modernizing the public register. “The German Bundestag and the federal government have decided to introduce the tax ID in all registers. From our point of view, this conflicts with the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court that there should be no uniform identification of citizens in all areas of life,” said Kelber. As an alternative, a technology has been proposed in which each register has its own identification, which can then be linked in the background.