Today, the Council of Europe Data Protection Commissioner, Jean-Philippe WALTER, was heard by the Parliamentary Assembly culture, science, education and medias committee on tracing applications deployed since the covid-19 pandemic. This hearing took place on the occasion of the presentation of a draft report on the topic prepared by MP Duncan BAKER (UK).

For Jean-Philippe Walter, “the legitimate fight against the pandemic that we went through does in no way justify to suspend the right to personal data protection, but can well be carried out taking into account appropriate guaranties to uphold fundamental rights, and it is possible to reconcile the requirements of an efficient public health policy with the protection of personal data and the respect for privacy. The report presented to you and the recommendations it contains are an important contribution in this respect.”

For reference, see the COVID pages of the Data Protection web site