Developers should always keep in mind that the devices produced should minimize the intrusion in people’s lives. Indeed, they should always remember that data are protected as follows:
- As “personal data”, i.e. any information relating to an identified or an identifiable natural person (Article 4(1) of the GDPR), it is protected under the GDPR. Health data benefit from additional protection (Article 9 of the GDPR).
- As “location data”, i.e. data processed in an electronic communications network or by an electronic communication service, indicating the geographic position of the terminal equipment of the user, it will probably be protected under the ePrivacy Regulation[1]
- Additionally, the future ePrivacy Regulation will protect information emitted by users’ terminal equipment.
This might change in the next years, but at the present moment this provides a good summary of the situation that currently exists.[2]
References
1https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-6087-2021-INIT/en/pdf ↑
2COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION, Guidance on Apps supporting the fight against COVID 19 pandemic in relation to data protection, Brussels, 16.4.2020 C(2020) 2523 final, p.6, at: https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/5_en_act_part1_v3.pdf ↑