“Every day, more customers are using digital processes in their lives. This was already a ‘no turning back’ process, and the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated it,” said Otavio Saraiva Padilha Velasco, IP attorney, Soerensen Garcia Advogados Associados (Brazil).

Mr. Velasco was moderating the session Data as an Asset and Worldwide Current Trends, which took place yesterday.

He noted that many customers who had avoided the digital world prior to the pandemic began using an increasing number of apps for deliveries, groceries, medicines, and “anything else you could imagine” as the crisis continued.

The pandemic also drove companies, governments, and health regulators toward data, using this goldmine of virtual information to make vital decisions for their countries and the world.

Flavia Mitri, privacy director–Latin America, Uber (Brazil), said that Uber, as part of its standard practice, does a significant amount of data-sharing with governments in jurisdictions that regulate its operations.

Early in the pandemic, government authorities and public health officials in Brazil had contacted Uber to share personal data about passengers taking rides to and from hospitals.

The company was asked to inform the government about customers coming in and out of a building where the city’s first publicly known COVID-19 case was discovered, for the purpose of contact tracing.

Ms. Mitri said the original request was for that data not to be anonymous or in aggregate. “We did not see that the government had a valid legal basis to request that at the time,” she said, “so instead we counter-offered and said, ‘We will not provide you with the specific names as part of this bulk data-sharing, but we will provide you with aggregate data of day one.’”

More Transparency

In Germany, public health authorities also used bulk data to help establish the effect of government restrictions on social interaction.

Mark Peters, information technology and intellectual property attorney, Grünecker (Germany), said: “Aggregated mobile phone data was used to analyze where these measures were effective or whether stricter measures were necessary.”

According to Mr. Peters, there was huge public discussion over Germany’s contact tracing app and whether data should be stored in a cloud service or locally.

German authorities eventually decided against central storage, he said, noting, “This was meant to increase trust, to help spread the technology, and to invite as many people as possible to participate.”

However, uptake of the app was low, and today, there are 34 million installed apps in a population of approximately 80 million, he noted.

Unfortunately, user awareness of data and privacy or lack thereof can be a real problem in the data world.

As just one example, said Tara Aaron-Stelluto, partner, Aaron | Sanders PLLC (US), “There is a very real problem of consumer misinformation or misunderstanding about privacy rights around their vaccination status.”

Providing another example of concerns about data privacy, Uber has deployed a facial scan globally to identify whether drivers and passengers are wearing facial masks.

“There was a significant level of discomfort when we rolled out this feature because people misunderstood and thought that we were doing a biometric validation of their faces,” said Ms. Mitri.

Rather, she explained, Uber is not storing the pictures it takes—it is scanning only to identify whether a mask is properly placed on a person’s face.

While the health crisis has brought such issues into the spotlight, there were questions about the balance between privacy and safety before it began.

“If consumers have such a misunderstanding about their privacy rights, it is more difficult to put in place robust and consistent policies and legislation and to make the case for them,” said Ms. Aaron-Stelluto.