COVID-19 & Digital Rights: Document Pool

Find in this EDRi doc pool all relevant articles and documents around the COVID-19 crisis and digital rights.

By EDRi · May 4, 2020

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic poses a global public health challenge of unprecedented proportions. In order to tackle it, countries around the world need to engage in coordinated, evidence-based responses grounded in solidarity, support and respect for human rights. This means that measures cannot lead to disproportionate and unnecessary actions. It is also vital that measures are not extended once we are no longer in a state of emergency. Otherwise, the actions taken under exceptional circumstances today can have significant repercussions on human rights both today and tomorrow.

In this document pool we will be listing relevant articles and documents related to the intersection of the COVID-19 crisis and digital rights. This will allow you to follow the developments of surveillance measures, content moderation, tracking and privacy-threatening actions in Europe as they relate to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as offer the set of perspectives and recommendations put forth by a host of digital rights watchdog organisations across Europe and the world. The document pool is updated regularly to ensure the delivery of the most up-to-date information.

EDRi’s Analysis and Recommendations
EDRi Articles, blog posts and press releases
- EDRi Reporting
- #COVIDTech – An EDRi Blog Series
Mapping Exercise
- EDRi Members’ Mapping Exercises
- Other Mapping Exercises
Official EU Documents
Other Useful Resources

1. EDRi’s Analysis and Recommendations

Official EDRi statement on COVID-19 and Digital Rights

EDRi calls for fundamental rights-based responses to COVID-19: https://edri.org/covid19-edri-coronavirus-fundamentalrights/ (20.03.2020)

EDRi Members’ Responses and Recommendations on COVID-19

Joint civil society statement – “States use of digital surveillance technologies to fight pandemic must respect human rights” (02.04.2020)
Access Now – “Protect digital rights, promote public health: toward a better coronavirus response” (05.03.2020)
Access Now – “Recommendations on privacy and data protection in the fight against COVID-19” (March 2020)
Access Now – “Fighting misinformation and defending free expression during COVID-19: Recommendations for states” (April 2020)
Article 19 – “Coronavirus: New ARTICLE 19 briefing on tackling misinformation” (06.03.2020)
Bits of Freedom – “Privacy is geen absoluut recht, maar wel een noodzaak” (20.03.2020)
Bits of Freedom – “Protect our health and protect out rights“
Defesa dos Dereitos Digitais (D3) – “A pandemia COVID19 e os direitos digitais” (26.03.2020)
Digitalcourage – “Coronavirus: Tipps fürs Onlineleben und Grundrechtsfragen“
Digitalcourage – “Im Blick: Grundrechte und Corona-Maßnahmen” (20.04.2020)
Digitale Gesellschaft – “Menschenrechte gelten nicht nur in „guten“ Zeiten” (25.03.2020)
Edward Hasbrouck – “Airline passenger data and COVID-19” (06.04.2020)
EFF – “EFF and COVID-19: Protecting Openness, Security, and Civil Liberties” (23.03.2020)
EPIC – “World Health Organization Again Speaks Up for Data Protection” (27.03.2020)
EPIC – “WHO Advisor – “We should never step beyond individual freedoms” (26.03.2020)
FIfF – “Datenschutz-Folgenabschätzung (DSFA) für eine Corona-App“
epicenter.works – “Digital rights implications of the COVID-19 crisis” (EN) / “Netzpolitische Empfehlungen in der Covid-19-Krise” (DE) (25.03.2020)
GFF – “Corona und Grundrechte: Fragen und Antworten” (23.03.2020)
Hermes Center – “Il Centro Hermes chiede al governo una risposta all’emergenza COVID-19 nel pieno rispetto dei diritti umani” (25.03.2020)
Homo Digitalis – “Homo Digitalis για την πανδημία του Κορωνοϊού” (28.03.2020)
Homo Digitalis – “COVID-19 & ΨΗΦΙΑΚΑ ΔΙΚΑΙΩΜΑΤΑ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ” (22.04.2020)
Javier Ruiz – “Containing Covid-19: countries leverage communications surveillance data” (02.04.2020)
La Quadrature du Net (LQDN) – “Nos arguments pour rejeter StopCovid” (14.04.2020)
La Quadrature du Net (LQDN) – “Orange recycles its geolocation service for the global pandemic” (31.03.2020)
noyb – “Data protection in times of corona: not a question of if, but of how” (09.04.2020)
Open Rights Group (ORG) – “Contact tracing and immunity passports must respect privacy” (15.04.2020)
Open Rights Group (ORG) – “In the Coronavirus crisis, privacy will be compromised—but our right to know must not be” (20.03.2020)
Panoptykon Foundation – “Wolność i prywatność w dobie koronawirusa.” (25.03.2020)
Panoptykon Foundation – “Technologia w walce z koronawirusem – 7 filarów zaufania” (06.04.2020)
Privacy International – “Extraordinary powers need extraordinary protections” (20.03.2020)
Privacy International – “International Health Day during a pandemic: an opportunity to reflect” (10.04.2020)
Privacy International – “Covid-19 response: Corporate Exploitation” (08.04.2020)
Ross Anderson – “Contact Tracing in the Real World” (12.04.2020)
SHARE Foundation – “Digitalna prava, pandemija i Balkan” (26.03.2020)

Analysing Tracking & Tracing Apps

Access Now – “Privacy and public health: the dos and don’ts for COVID-19 contact tracing apps” (04.05.2020)
Alternatif Bilişim Derneği – “Ministry’s health tracking app of COVID-19 isn’t transparent” (10.06.2020)
CCC – “10 requirements for the evaluation of “Contact Tracing” apps” (06.04.2020)
Council of Europe – “Contact Tracing Apps” (28.04.2020)
Digitalcourage – “Corona-Apps: Was heißt hier anonym?” (22.04.2020)
Digitalcourage – “Einordung zur geplanten ‘Corona-Kontakt-Tracing-App’ des RKI” (08.04.2020)
Digitale Gesellschaft – “Datenschutzprüfung für „Corona-Apps“ offenlegen” (15.04.2020)
FSFE – “Any Corona tracking app must be used voluntarily and be Free Software” (02.04.2020)
epicenter.works – “Analyse der “Stopp Corona”-App des Roten Kreuzes” (01.04.2020)
epicenter.works – “Technische und Rechtliche Analyse der Stopp Corona App des Österreichischen Roten Kreuzes” (22.04.2020)
epicenter.works – “Analysis of the “Stopp Corona” App: Improvements through expert report” (23.04.2020)

2. EDRi’s Articles, blog posts and press release

EDRi Reporting

“Technology, migration and illness in the time of COVID-19” (15.04.2020)
“COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects digital rights in the Balkans” (15.04.2020)
“Press Release: EDRi calls for fundamental rights-based responses to COVID-19” (01.04.2020)
“COVID-19: A Commission hitchhiker’s guide to the App Store” (28.04.2020)
“Why COVID-19 is a Crisis for Digital Rights” (29.04.2020)

#COVIDTech – An EDRi Blog Series

EDRi – “Emergency responses to COVID-19 must not extend beyond the crisis” (15.04.2020)
EDRi – “COVID infodemic and the lure of censorship” (13.05.2020)

3. Mapping Exercises

EDRi Members Mapping

Index on Censorship – https://www.indexoncensorship.org/disease-control/
Privacy International – https://privacyinternational.org/examples/tracking-global-response-covid-19
noyb – “Active overview of projects using personal data to combat SARS-CoV-2“
B.I.R.D. a project by SHARE Foundation – https://bird.tools/mapping-digital-rights-during-coronavirus-outbreak/

Other Mapping Excercises

Council of Europe – https://www.coe.int/en/web/data-protection-staging/covid-19-data-protection
European Commission Data Portal – https://www.covid19dataportal.org/
Future of Privacy Forum – “European Union’s Data-Based Policy Against the Pandemic, Explained” (30.04.2020)
Pandemic Big Brother – https://pandemicbigbrother.online/en/
FS0C131Y – https://fs0c131y.com/covid19-tracker-apps/
GDPR Hub – https://gdprhub.eu/index.php?title=Data_Protection_under_SARS-CoV-2

4. Official EU Documents

European Commission: Toolbox – “Mobile applications to support contact tracing in the EU’s fight against COVID-19” (15.04.2020)
European Commission: “Guidance on Apps supporting the fight against COVID 19 pandemic in relation to data protection” (16.04.2020)
European Parliament: “EU coordinated action to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences” (17.04.2020)
European Data Protection Board (EDPB): Letter to European Commission on COVID-19 apps (14.04.2020)
European Data Protection Board (EDPB): “Guidelines 04/2020 on the use of location data and contact tracing tools in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak” (21.04.2020)
European Data Protection Board (EDPB): “Guidelines 03/2020 on the processing of data concerning health for the purpose of scientific research in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak” (21.04.2020)
European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE): “Use of smartphone data to manage COVID-19 must respect EU data protection rules” (07.04.2020)
EU Fundamental Rights Agency: “Protect human rights and public health in fighting COVID-19“
EU Fundamental Rights Agency: “Coronavirus pandemic in the EU – fundamental rights implications“
Council of Europe (CoE): “Joint Statement on Digital Contact Tracing” (28.04.2020)
Croatian Presidency of the Council: “Digital sector is playing a key role in fighting the pandemic” (05.05.2020)
European Parliament: “COVID-19 tracing apps: MEPs stress the need to preserve citizens’ privacy” (14.05.2020)

5. Other Useful Resources

World Health Organization (WHO) lead advisor – Warning on data protection and human rights (25.03.2020)
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC): “Technical Report: Contract Tracing: Public health management of persons, including healthcare workers, having had contact with COVID-19 cases in the European Union – second update” (08.04.2020)
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR): “Responses to COVID-19 are failing people in poverty worldwide” (22 April 2020)
European Academy for Freedom of Information and Data Protection (EAID): “Corona – Fight the pandemic, protect civil rights and data protection!” (26.03.2020)
Digital Freedom Fund (DFF) – “Why COVID-19 is a Crisis for Digital Rights” (16.04.2020)
Ada Lovelace Institute: “COVID-19 Rapid Evidence Review: Exit through the App Store?” (April 2020)
Vice Media: “Snowden Warns Governments Are Using Coronavirus to Build ‘the Architecture of Oppression’” (10.04.2020)

With huge thanks to the individuals and organisations across the EDRi network who have shared resources for this document pool.