The government's proposal for the “mandatory” use of the COVID-19 application generated controversy. The measure appeared to infringe fundamental freedoms and was not consensual. Opponents of the proposal noted that although the data is confidential, in the future it could be sold to third parties.
The possibility of registering citizens' daily data is not well accepted by everyone. However, in order to analyze the criticality of the data, it is convenient to review other data generated in daily activities and stored by third parties, arising for example from the use of the Internet, mobile phone and debit/credit card.
When visiting a page on the Internet, the history of all accessed pages is recorded, not just the history of the website. browser, but also on the server of the page accessed and in a gigantic database of the provider of the browser. In addition to the pages, the duration of the visit, the geographic location of the order and all interactions on the page are stored.
As we know, any telephone communication is recorded. But, more important than that, is that, at every moment, the mobile phone's geographic location is also being stored, by the telecommunications operator. The geographic position and time allow to trace the steps of the owner of the mobile phone.
Bank details are extremely important and, in any bank statement, in addition to the transaction amount, the place and time of each transaction appears. With these data, it is also possible to portray a person's life or draw a consumer profile.
We could cite many other examples, such as financial records, tolls...
Each of these data individually does not completely characterize an individual. But by bringing together all the data about the same person, the possibilities for characterization are extended. It is important to reflect at this point on the seriousness of the data storage monopoly.
The General Data Protection Regulation (RGPD) does not allow direct transmission of data to third parties. Data are masked (hiding individual information) or aggregated (grouping and calculating statistical indicators).
When an entity does not have enough data to make a decision, it searches the market for data providers. Data acquisition consists of enriching data and enables analysis in a greater number of dimensions. This is a growing business, with more and more companies selling and buying data.
Currently, we don't pay for much of the content on the Internet because the data we generate has value. In the near future, we may not even pay for the use of our mobile phone, due to the value of the trail created by location.
Even with confidential data omitted, when referring to geographic position (GPS), the data can be easily enriched to characterize or identify a particular piece of data.
In short: the benefits of installing the StayAway COVID application are an order of magnitude greater and several entities already collect our data.
Author Tiago Candeias, Director of the degree in Computer Engineering at ISMAT
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