Data: The key role in fighting against the Coronavirus pandemic – Opportunities and risks of the contact tracing Apps

Recently, developers from all over the world, including Google and Apple1 have been working on pseudonymous contact tracing apps to break the chains of transmission. These so-called Corona Apps could play a vital role in the fight against the virus, but they also raise serious privacy and data protection concerns. While these apps are supposed to help limit the further spread of COVID-19, they might also expose sensitive personal data belonging to the affected data subjects. This may include health data2 or, in some cases, even the location data of everyone using the app. Some apps collect real time data on the actual location and movements of their users to warn people if they have been in contact or near an infected person. This also helps the government3 to understand the spread of the virus, and to design appropriate measures and take actions accordingly. To avoid incompliance or regulatory confusion, on April 8th the European Commission adopted recommendations to support Coronavirus containment measures through mobile data and apps. These recommendations set out key principals concerning data security and EU fundamental rights, such as privacy and data protection.4 In general, the processing of special categories of data, such as health data, is prohibited unless a special provision (Art. 9 (2) a-j GDPR) applies. In the case of the fight against COVID-19, the legal grounds for data pro-