Personal Data Privacy vs Public Interest: Covid-19 Data Gathering Brings a Personal Data Protection Policy Rethink

Abstract

Governments around the world have gathered masses of personal information on their citizens as part of the fight against the Covid pandemic. Citizens, willingly for the most part, yielded such data in order to protect the public good and safety of society. Focusing on personal data gathering, processing and protection for public good, the authors consider how far citizens are willing to accept that their personal data can be collected by governments during a public health crisis. The situation in Europe and in China shall be compared, showing how the “public interest” during Covid-19 was understood very differently in different jurisdictions.