Eight European telecoms operators have agreed to provide their customers' geolocation data to the European Commission. We don't know the whole list but we knowthat Orange will take part in this initiative, just like Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom.
The idea behind this agreement is to aggregate all information in order to coordinate decision-making at European Union level. The institution also promises to destroy all of this data once the coronavirus pandemic is over. It should also be noted that the data will be anonymized, which differs from the practices observed in several Asian countries.
Apple, Google and Facebook called to do the same in the United States
Anxious to reassure the public on this subject, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) also considered that the European Commission should be completely transparent, if it wants to comply with the regulations in force. In the EU, the collection and use of personal data is indeed subject to compliance withthe ePrivacy directive as well as the European Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
According to several European jurists, it will above all be a question of avoiding at all costs that these exceptional measures become established over time.
As the crisis spreads very quickly, many countries are tempted to use the personal data of their citizens. Some even opt for very restrictive and repressive measures like Taiwan. The movements of people placed in quarantine are strictly monitored via their smartphones to ensure that they do not leave their homes. This system seems to be bearing fruit since the country has to date only 267 cases of coronavirus and two deaths.
In the United States, a project closer to that of the European Union could see the light of day.The government would like to ask Apple, Google and Facebook for anonymized geolocation data of their usersto better monitor the evolution of the epidemic on American territory.
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By : Keleops AG
