Security News > 2020 > June > Former UK Labour deputy leader wants to know how the NHS's contact-tracing app will ensure user privacy
Harriet Harman MP, chair of Britain's Commons Human Rights Committee, has written to UK health secretary Matt Hancock seeking clarity on privacy aspects of the government's latest coronavirus contact-tracing app.
"It is still crucial that people in the UK should be able to feel reassured that their data protection, privacy, and non-discrimination rights are protected in any contact tracing system," she wrote.
Harman's line of questioning touches on many points pertaining to the acquisition and retention of data, and quizzes Hancock on essential operational details, including how the app will handle data it isn't authorised to collect, as well as ensuring it doesn't discriminate against certain demographics.
While Harman hasn't advocated for any particular technological approach to the problem, she has nonetheless described existing data privacy as insufficient for the scope of a nationwide contact-tracing app.
The former deputy Labour leader has also called for the implementation of a contact-tracing tsar, which would be responsible for the governance of any eventual app, and would field complaints from the public.