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Ulrich Kelber: Praise for the Corona warning app
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IMAGO/Thomas Trutschel/photothek.de / IMAGO/photothek
The Federal Data Protection Commissioner Ulrich Kelber has warned against using health data permanently for certain proofs of authorization.
In the corona pandemic, it has become commonplace to use an app to prove your vaccination status when entering restaurants, cinemas, stadiums and other public places, says Kelber.
»This is practical and, under the circumstances, also data protection-friendly.«
However, under no circumstances should it become the standard for health data to be used everywhere as a kind of admission ticket, said Germany's top data protection officer on Tuesday when presenting his authority's activity report.
It must also be prevented that employers gain permanent insight into sensitive data, says Kelber: "In the debate about compulsory vaccination at workplaces, we have seen that some wish to be able to process more of this data permanently as employers." But health data is a category that deserves special protection.
If this principle were violated, data would be disclosed to a third party with whom you already have an unequal power relationship.
"This must not happen."
Skeptical about government plans
Kelber found words of praise for the Corona warning app: "It is a reference, both technologically and in terms of data protection." The app is designed for minimal data collection and concentrates on the actual task, namely to point out the risk of a possible infection without Detour via health authorities and without delays.
Kelber rejected allegations that excessive data protection had hindered the containment of the corona pandemic.
»The corona data that we obtained from Israel could also have been processed in Germany.
However, they are not available here.« At the same time, other data must be strictly protected so that, for example, people with rare diseases cannot be traced back.
The data protection officer was critical of plans by politicians to rely on a central identification feature when modernizing the public register.
"The German Bundestag and the federal government have decided to introduce the tax ID in all registers," said Kelber.
"From our point of view, this conflicts with the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court that there must be no uniform identification of citizens in all areas of life." As an alternative, a technology has been proposed in which each register has its own identification that can then be linked in the background.
mbo/dpa