The right to privacy may be a fundamental human right but it is
not absolute. In cases of pandemic diseases such as the current
COVID-19 pandemic, the safeguarding of such right will face
limitations due to concerns of public health and safety. In turn,
this brings about the question of how far can the privacy rights of
those people affected by the virus and the rights of those who have
been placed in quarantine be limited for the public interest?
What does the GDPR say?
The EU General Data Protection Regulation ('GDPR')
allows for the limitation of the rights of the data subject in
times of calamity, where in day-to-day life such limitations may
not be acceptable.
Pursuant to article 6 of the GDPR, processing of data without
the consent of the data subject may be allowed on the basis that
the processing of such data is necessary in order to protect the
vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person
and that processing is necessary for the
