Pandemics, the Protection of Personal Information and the Right to Privacy, (Part 2: The Right to Privacy)

Issues related to the Restriction of the Right to Privacy in Emergency Situations

Abstract

The following perspectives will be deliberated with regard to fundamental considerations for ensuring both the effectiveness of infectious disease control measures and the guarantee of the right to privacy:
　⑴ issues concerning the restriction of the right to privacy in emergency situations, including: (ⅰ) measures associated with emergency situations and the restriction of the right to privacy in a such situations; (ⅱ) normalisation, regularisation and the continuing of exceptional responses in emergency situations, (eg concerns about ‘roll-back’ and the ‘ratchet effect’); (ⅲ) use for purposes different from those originally intended, (‘Dual-Use’); and (ⅳ) acquisition of subsidiary information and unexpected emergence of unexpected situations, (eg the applicability of ‘human-body temperature’ to personal information requiring consideration and subsidiary information associated with the measurement of human-body temperature and the example of ‘mission creep’); and (ⅴ) the need to respond to over-reactions which do not recognise the urgency of the situation.
　⑵ Issues concerning privacy in infectious disease control include: (ⅰ) procedures for requesting and disclosing personal information and the issues related to privacy; (ⅱ) the obligation to cooperate with active epidemiological surveys of specified patients and others based on the revised Infectious Diseases Control Act and restrictions on the right to privacy; (ⅲ) the correspondence between the personal information taken and thus, sensitive personal information acquired in relation to the taking of tests, etc, (ⅳ) the implementation of tests for infectious diseases which are not included in the tests to be taken and the violation of privacy and (ⅴ) the necessity of thorough security management measures for information management in relation to countermeasures against infectious diseases.
　⑶ The use of technology for infectious diseasecontrol and privacy: (ⅰ) the use of GPS location information, (ⅱ) the introduction of contact-tracing and confirmation applications and the considerations required to resolve concerns about their widespread use, (ⅲ) the acquisition of biometric information and the use of biometrics, and (ⅳ) sewage epidemiological surveys and privacy, (eg the privacy of waste-water).