Following productive discussions with the Department of Health and Community Services and the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information, we have concluded our review of the COVID Alert exposure notification application and support use of the app.
The OIPC has been engaged from an early stage on the development of COVID Alert. Although the federal government led the development of this app, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner ensured that privacy commissioners across Canada were consulted. Its development is consistent with the privacy principles expressed by federal, provincial and territorial privacy commissioners in a May 7 joint statement. The app being launched today was developed based on a protocol developed by Google and Apple and, while it leverages federal work, the version launched here has been customized for this province.
The app is based on a protocol that does not involve the collection of personal information by the government or any company, as the technology has been designed to ensure the data is anonymized. It has been subject to scrutiny by privacy and cybersecurity experts around the world. The app demonstrates that modern technology can meet an emerging need without the mass collection of personal information. Through adoption of this app, the government has established a high standard as it moves into more e-services.
“It is my job to critically examine new government-led programs or legislation to determine if they meet privacy protection requirements entrenched in our legislation. In this case, I am happy to say that the privacy questions we have raised to date have been satisfactorily answered,” says Commissioner Harvey. “I will download this app and use it myself.”
Downloading and using the app must be entirely voluntary. This is an important civil liberties issue. The OIPC encourages the provincial government to consider enacting legislation to prohibit anyone, public or private, from requiring use of the app as a condition for the provision of goods, services, entry into a premises or facility, or into the province itself.
The OIPC expects the Department to evaluate adoption and implementation of the app to ensure that it functions as intended and continues to meet the identified need.
“I support the use of this exposure notification app as a privacy-sensitive use of modern technology to confront a novel and rapidly emerging problem. This app will only work if people trust it and people will only trust it if their privacy is protected,” said Harvey. “Putting privacy first in the development of this app is good for our fight against COVID and an excellent example for the development of other digital public services.”
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Media contact
Sean Murray
Director of Research and Quality Assurance
709-729-6309