• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • About
    • Board of Directors
    • Advisory Board
    • Code of Ethics
    • Privacy Commitment
    • Fellowship Awards
    • Media
  • Get Involved
    • Membership
      • Advancing the Profession
      • Member Benefits
      • Why Join the PACC
      • Member Contact Update
    • Speak Out
    • Volunteer
    • Donate
      • Donor Bill of Rights
  • Certification
    • Apply for Certification
    • Recertification
    • Why Pursue Certification?
    • Certificate or Certification?
    • Accreditation
  • Resources
    • Strategic Privacy and Access Resource Center
      • Parents & Teachers
      • Standards
      • SPARC Contribution Guidelines
    • International Data Flows
    • Commissioners
    • Careers
    • Publications
    • Training & Education
  • Data Privacy Day
  • News & Views
    • Guest Post Guidelines
  • Contact
    • Speaking Invitations & Media Requests
    • Stay Informed & Avoid Spam
    • Partner
  • Login

The Privacy and Access Council of Canada

The voice for privacy and access

The New Winkel

04/May/2020

In the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, Westerners were astounded that China would require its citizens to show a QR code that “rates people as red, yellow, or green risks. To enter an apartment complex or a market, residents must scan a QR code at a manned checkpoint, letting the system know where they are and producing a one-time color code pass to show the guard.”

The language and acceptability have shifted.

Perhaps because the scientific and medical community have not yet come up with a reliable way to test immunity to COVID-19, or to know how long any such immunity will last, a new and more innocuous term is being promoted: ‘health passports.’ 

Digital health passports can, by definition, be all-encompassing and have much greater utility; and they are now being considered and adopted by Western governments.

Promoted as a useful mechanism to facilitate a return to work, health passports would enable nations to start rebuilding their economies, and avoid mounting social unrest emerging as communities around the world protest the ongoing lock-down. 

The use of such digital papers is hardly different than China’s QR codes, or winkels before them, and enables governments (including Canada) to create detailed profiles of everyone in the country with astounding precision. 

Tracking the data flows in health passport systems will certainly create challenges for access-to-information and data protection professionals as they prepare comprehensive privacy impact assessments to ensure the obvious and unintended risks to sensitive personal and health information can be identified and mitigated.

Filed Under: Big Data, Data Protection, Facial Recognition, Government, Privacy, Surveillance

Footer

PACC is the voice for privacy and access.

PACC is Independent  •  Non-profit  •  Non-partisan  •  Non-government

PACC is dedicated to the development and promotion of the access-to-information, information privacy, and data governance profession across the private, non-profit and public sectors.

PACC is the certifying body for access and privacy professionals, and engages in outreach efforts to advance awareness about access, privacy, and data protection.

Recent Posts

  • Guidelines 01/2021 on Examples regarding Data Breach Notification
  • Facial Recognition Cameras Here to Stay as Country’s Court System Entrenches Video Surveillance
  • IPC consultation on five-year strategic priorities under way
  • Info watchdog raps Privy Council Office for terminating access requests from public
  • A year to forget that’s worth remembering

© 2021 · Privacy and Access Council of Canada · Maintained by SLIcore Design.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkNoPrivacy policy