Security News > 2020 > May > Open letter from digital rights groups to UK health secretary questions big tech's role in NHS COVID-19 data store
A broad-based campaign group has written to UK health secretary Matt Hancock calling for greater openness in the government's embrace of private-sector tech companies contracted to provide a data store and dashboards as part of the NHS response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Campaign groups including Liberty, openDemocracy and Privacy International have now written to Hancock saying that promises of openness about the role of multiple private-sector tech firms in handling the health data of millions of UK citizens have not been fulfilled.
"We share the common goal of preserving public confidence in systems that can help make us all safer. Therefore, before the NHS continues its plans, we urge you to provide the public with more information and take appropriate measures to reduce risk of data sharing and keep the aggregated data under democratic control," the letter states.
The open letter - also signed by individuals from law and academia - points out a legal opinion from Ravi Naik, a solicitor and legal director at data rights agency AWO; Matthew Ryder QC and Edward Craven of Matrix Chambers; and Gayatri Sarathy of Blackstone Chambers: namely, that the data store plan "Does not comply, thus far, with data protection principles".
"These questions are fundamental to maintaining public trust in the NHS and to help keep high-risk personal data about UK citizens safe at a time when we need that the most. Lack of transparency and opacity in which these agreements are made do not help [in] building this trust," the letter states.