Data Protection and Privacy Rights: the Impact of the Pandemic

Abstract

I 2020 ble hele verden overrasket av COVID-19-pandemien. I et forsøk på å støtte hardt pressede helsetjenester, begynte flere land å utvikle og bruke smittesporingsapplikasjoner. Disse applikasjonene var raskt tatt i bruk. For å vurdere om denne teknologien var klar til bruk vil den derfor stille forskningsspørsmålet: "Hvilken innvirkning har Covid-19-pandemien hatt på databeskyttelse og personvernrettigheter?". Oppgaven vil bruke en komparativ analyse for å analysere tre casestudier. Disse casestudiene vil være om landene Irland, Norge og Danmark, samt landenes nasjonale smittesporings-applikasjoner COVID Tracker, Smittestopp og Smittestop. Oppgaven fant at pandemien har hatt en definitiv innvirkning på databeskyttelse og personvernrettigheter. Det ble imidlertid også funnet at virkningen varierer avhengig av hvilken smittesporings-applikasjon som analyseres.

In 2020 the entire world was caught unprepared by the COVID-19 pandemic. In an effort to supplement struggling health services, several countries began developing and using contact tracing applications. These applications were rushed into use as quickly as possible. Therefore, to assess whether this new technology was ready for use, this thesis will be asking the research question: “What impact has the Covid-19 pandemic had on data protection and privacy rights?”. The thesis will use a comparative analysis to analyze three case studies. These case studies will be on the countries Ireland, Norway, and Denmark, as well as the countries’ national contact tracing applications COVID Tracker, Smittestopp, and Smittestop. The thesis found that the pandemic has had a definitive impact on data protection and privacy rights. However, it was also found that the impact varies on the application being analyzed.