COVID-19: Malta's Data Protection Commissioner Issues Statement

The Maltese Office of the Information and Data Protection Commissioner ("IDPC") has issued a statement addressing the processing of personal data in the context of COVID-19.

Following several guidelines issued by data protection authorities across Member States of the EU and a statement issued by the European Data Protection Board, the IDPC issued a statement of its own.

The IDPC acknowledged that several public and private organisations are taking the necessary measures to mitigate the COVID-19 effects and that processing of special categories of personal data, specifically health data, would be required. The IDPC made reference to article 9 of the GDPR and that in special circumstances the processing of special categories of personal data may be legitimate.