Security News > 2020 > May > UK's Ministry of Defence: We'll harvest and anonymise private COVID-19 apps' tracing data by handing it to 'behavioural science' arm
Worried about identifiable personal data from your coronavirus contact-tracing app making it into a British government database? Fear not! The Ministry of Defence is sanitising it all first.
Public fears are already running high after official COVID-19 contact tracing app maker NHSX's CEO admitted to Parliament that data harvested by the app would be retained after the pandemic ends for "Research".
Its areas of interest include AI, blockchain, behavioural sciences and data analytics, among other areas.
In a statement jHub declared that it would be sanitising inputs from private sector coronavirus tracing apps to remove personally identifiable information before passing what remains onto the National Health Service's digital arm, NHSX. It said: "jHub will receive and review the data, removing any information which may inadvertently identify users, ensuring that only symptom and demographic data is included. The data will then be checked for any security issues, with any incorrect or duplicate data also being erased."
Separately, senior Labour MP Harriet Harman called for stronger legal protections for the data harvested by contact-tracing apps.