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Contact Tracing: Software

Question for Department of Health and Social Care

UIN 41448, tabled on 29 April 2020

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of what circumstances the de-anonymisation of the covid-19 tracing app would be judged to be proportionate.

This answer is the replacement for a previous holding answer.

Answered on

7 May 2020

Privacy and security remains an integral part of our approach - the user can choose to remain anonymous and their privacy will be protected as they go about their daily life. Should a user develop symptoms they will be asked for permission to donate the log of contact data. If app users choose to submit their data to the National Health Service, either proactively or when requesting a test, it will be held on a NHS database held to highest security standards. Users will at any time be able to remove the app from their phones.

Named day
Named day questions only occur in the House of Commons. The MP tabling the question specifies the date on which they should receive an answer. MPs may not table more than five named day questions on a single day.