Academic Scientific JournalsDigital surveillance in the times of COVID-19: Lessons from Slovakia
Keywords:
digital surveillance, privacy, Covid-19, human rightAbstract
Digital surveillance in the form of dataveillance is one of the modern technological tools used for a variety of purposes. With the spread of coronavirus around the globe, digital measures were implemented to fight the pandemic. The article focuses on the right to privacy and the right to data protection as enshrined in the law of the European Union in terms of using such tools during the pandemic. Special emphasis is put on the analysis of the recent judgment of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic suspending the effect of “Lex Corona” allowing public authorities access to location data held by telecommunication companies.
Downloads
References
A Singapore Government Agency Website (2020), Help speed up contact tracing with TraceTogether, Available at: https://www.gov.sg/article/help-speed-up-contact-tracing-with-tracetogether [Accessed 22-05-2020].
Act n. 350/1996 Coll. on the Rules of Procedure of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, (1996), Available in the Slovak language at https://www.slov-lex.sk/pravne-predpisy/SK/ ZZ/2011/351/20200327. [Accessed 22-05-2020].
Andraško, J. (2016), Bezpečná identifikácia a autentifikácia pri využívaní elektronických služieb verejnej správy. In Bratislavské právnické fórum 2016: Internet ako priestor možného porušovania práv. Bratislava: Univerzita Komenského, Právnická fakulta, 2016, p. 7-17.
Bentham, J. (1791), Panopticon; or the Inspection-House, T. Payne, London. Clarke, R. - Greenleaf, G. (2017), Dataveillance Regulation: A research framework. University of New South Wales Law Research Series, s. 2.
Clarke, R. (1988), Information Technology and Dataveillance In Commun ACM 31,5, p. 498-512, Available at: http://www.rogerclarke. com/DV/CACM88.html [Accessed 22-05-2020].
COM. (2020), Communication from the Commission Guidance on Apps supporting the fight against COVID 19 pandemic in relation to data protection 2020/C 124 I/01, Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52020XC0417%2808%29 [Accessed 22-05-2020].
Constitutional Act No. 227/2002 Coll. on State Security at the Time of War, State of War, State of Emergency, and State of Crisis, (2002), Available in Slovak language at https://www.slov-lex.sk/pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2002/227/20160102 [Accessed 22-05-2020].
Deleuze, G. (1992), Postscript on the societies of control, Winter. EC.EUROPA (2020), Digital technologies - actions in response to coronavirus pandemic: Data, artificial intelligence and supercomputers, Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/content/digital-technologies-actions-response-coronavirus-pandemic-data-artificial-intelligence-and [Accessed 22-05-2020].
EDPB (2020), Guidelines 04/2020 on the use of location data and contact tracing tools in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak, Available at: https://edpb.europa.eu/our-work-tools/our-documents/ usmernenia/guidelines-042020-use-location-data-and-contact-tracing_en [Accessed 22-05-2020].
European Commission (2020), Coronavirus: a common approach for safe and efficient mobile tracing apps across the EU, Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/coronaviruscommon-approach-safe-and-efficient-mobile-tracing-apps-across-eu [Accessed 22-05-2020].
Foucault, M. (1980), Power/knowledge: selected interviews and other writings 1972–1977 (Ed. C. Gordon), Pantheon Books, New York. Galič, M. – Timan, T. – Koops, B.-J. (2017), Bentham, Deluze and Beyond: An Overview of Surveillance Theories from the Panopticon to Participation, In Philosophy & Technology, Vol. 30, n.1.
Guild, E. & Carrera, S. (2014), The Political and Judicial Life of Metadata: Digital Rights Ireland and the Trail of the Data Retention Directive. CEPS Papers in Liberty and Security.
Haggerty, K. D. - Ericson, R. V. (2000), The surveillant assemblage. In British Journal of Sociology, 51(4), 2000, p. 605–22.
Harvard Business Review (2020), How Digital Contact Tracing Slowed Covid-19 in East Asia Available at: https://hbr.org/2020/04/howdigital-contact-tracing-slowed-covid-19-in-east-asia [Accessed 22-05- 2020].
Husovec, M (2017), Courts, privacy and data protection in Slovakia, In Brkan, M. – Psychogiopoulou E., Courts, Privacy and Data Protection in the Digital Environment, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
The judgment of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic PL. ÚS 13/2020-103, Available at: https:// www.ustavnysud.sk/documents/10182/1270838/ PL_+US+13_2020+-+Rozhodnutie+-+Uznesenie+z+predbezneho+prerokovania.pdf/464a47b6-66b4-4545-9a9f-eb0f10b4bd80 [Accessed 22-05-2020].
The judgment of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic PL. ÚS 10/2014, Available at: https://www.ustavnysud.sk/docDownload/6c439346-cdfa-442d-86e7-5f616e2cf9f4/%C4%8D.%201%20 -%20PL.%20%C3%9AS%2010_2014.pdf [Accessed 22-05-2020].
The judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union n. C 293/12 from 8 April 2014 Digital Rights Ireland, Available at: https://eurlex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A62012CJ0293 [Accessed 22-05-2020].
Kasl, F. (2019), Surveillance in digitalized society, In The Lawyer Quarterly, Vol 9, No 4. Pernot-LePlay, E. (2020), China’s Approach on Data Privacy Law: A Third Way Between the U.S. and the EU? In Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2020.
Lyon, D. (2017), Surveillance Studies. An overview. Polity. Martin, L. (2015), The Fate of the Data Retention Directive: About Mass Surveillance and Fundamental Rights in the EU Legal Order. In Research Handbook on EU Criminal Law, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
Mesarčík, M. (2018), Sledovanie prostredníctvom údajov (dataveillance) v právnom poriadku Slovenskej republiky? In Bratislavské právnické fórum 2018 [elektronický dokument]: ústava na internete a internet v ústave. Bratislava : Právnická fakulta UK, s. 73-81.
Mesarčík, M. (2019), Predohra ku nariadeniu ePrivacy. In Comenius n. 11 (2019), p. 6-16. New York Times (2020), In Coronavirus Fight, China Gives Citizens a Color Code, With Red Flags, Available at: https://www.nytimes. com/2020/03/01/business/china-coronavirus-surveillance.html [Accessed 22-05-2020].
REC. (2020), Commission Recommendation (EU) 2020/518 of 8 April 2020 on a common Union toolbox for the use of technology and data to combat and exit from the COVID-19 crisis, in particular concerning mobile applications and the use of anonymised mobility data, Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32020H0518 [Accessed 22-05-2020].
The Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (2020), “StayHomeSafe” Mobile App User Guide, Available at: https://www. coronavirus.gov.hk/eng/stay-home-safe.html [Accessed 22-05-2020].
Zanfir-Fortuna, G. (2015), How CJEU’s ‘Privacy Spring’ Construed the Human Rights Shield in the Digital Age, In European judicial systems as a challenge for democracy”, Intersentia, Cambridge-Antwerp-Portland.
Zuboff, S. (2015), Big other: surveillance capitalism and the prospects of an information civilization, In Journal of Information Technology, 30, 2015, p. 75–89.
