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577COVID-19
and Accountable Artificial Intelligence in a Global Context
supersede privacy laws.18 Even worse, people already in positions of
vulnerability as aid recipients or refugee claimants have very little to
control over their own data protection and very few have the actual
capacity to consent.
Importantly, data used to fight COVID-19 can be subverted
for other, more nefarious, purposes. The security firm FireEye has
reported that personal data was used in Syria to monitor and target
dissidents.19 In the past, data used by humanitarian organizations to
distribute aid has been hacked and diverted in this way in a number
of other conflict-ridden areas, including Yemen.20 The information col-
lected during a pandemic includes health information of populations
that are marginalized or even oppressed. Humanitarian organizations
are having to prevent the nefarious use and misappropriation of the
personal data of the most vulnerable and impoverished persons in
the world by actors ranging from militaries to authoritarian regimes
to amorphous hacker armies.21 Moreover, the collection and use of
population data can also generate risks of racial discrimination based
on data concerning vulnerable communities. It is therefore essential to
protect sensitive information that concerns not only individual infor-
mation but also group-level information.
The Centre for Humanitarian Data, a part of the United Nations
Centre for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, has published
responsible data guidelines, with a focus on countries experiencing
humanitarian crisis.22 These guidelines include precautions for ano-
nymization, understanding sensitive data, and techniques, such as
Statistical Disclosure Control, which may ensure that data is safe to
publish. The Centre has also developed a Peer Review Framework,
which aims to provide ethical oversight of analytical models
18. “Privacy and the Covid-19 Outbreak” (March 2020), online: Office of theÂ
Privacy Commissioner of Canada <https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/privacy-topics/
health-genetic-and-other-body-information/health-emergencies/gd_covid_
202003/>.
19. FireEye, “Behind the Syrian Conflict’s Digital Frontlines” (February 2015), online
(pdf): FireEye <https://www.fireeye.com/content/dam/fireeye-www/global/en/
current-threats/pdfs/rpt-behind-the-syria-conflict.pdf>.
20. “In Search of Better Data Protection for Those Caught in Conflict” (1 February 2019),
online: Open Canada <https://www.opencanada.org/features/search-better-data-
protection-those-caught-conflict/>.
21. Ibid.
22. Centre for Humanitarian Data, “FAQ on Data Responsibility for Covid-19”
(11 May 2020), online: Humanitarian Data Exchange <https://data.humdata.org/
faq-data-responsibility-covid-19>.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Title
- VULNERABLE
- Subtitle
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Authors
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Publisher
- Ottawa Press
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Size
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Pages
- 648
- Categories
- Coronavirus
- International