Privacy Commissioner John Edwards says he "understands" why the Government is looking into using apps that can track Kiwis during our Covid-19 lockdown, but what's done with that information after it's collected needs to be addressed, he says.
Speaking to TVNZ1's Breakfast this morning Commissioner Edwards was asked about the rights of those who had contracted the virus if this type of tracking technology was used here.
The Commissioner said he wasn't completely against it.
"There's going to be numbers of people needing to be tracked that makes the manual system really strained so I understand why there's a lot of work going on now in looking for technological solutions to assist that.
"But it's about finding the one that achieves the public health outcome without necessarily throwing privacy completely under the bus."
Commissioner Edwards says there's examples of this already on the market with one app in Singapore capable of storing encrypted and relative data that is only sent to relevant authorities if someone tests positive for the virus, otherwise the information is deleted after 21 days.
The distribution of someone's information is the key to balancing our safety and privacy, Commissioner Edwards added.
"The distribution of that information [must be] limited to people who have a public health role and need to use that and the amount of information collected is minimised.
"We don't want too broad a definition of who a contact is - it's got to be defined by public health."
Commissioner Edwards added this level of access to private information must only be temporary while the Covid-19 threat is present.
"I'm really wary of any central-based solution that might linger beyond what is absolutely necessary for the crisis."
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