COVID-19: International Chamber of Commerce passes landmark AOKpass declaration to protect health data in an era of invasive COVID-10 tracking apps

In an attempt to protect the health and personal data of hundreds of millions of people worldwide, the International Chamber of Commerce recently passed the AOKpass Declaration. The aim of the AOKpass declaration appears to be to make health data privacy compliance and data protection standards critical aspects of national and private COVID-tracking solutions.

Around the world, governments are rolling out COVID-tracking apps to facilitate contact tracing. Many of these solutions have been roundly criticized for violating data security and privacy norms. Security flaws were recently identified in India's semi-mandatory Aarogya Setu app, for example.

Privacy concerns surrounding COVID-19 tracking data aren't just based on principles: databases storing national records are vulnerable to attacks by hackers and foreign governments. A leak could have major national security consequences. 

The ICC's AOKpass declaration doesn't make substantive commitments. However, the AOKpass standard now provides governments and app vendors a gold standard to strive towards when it comes to privacy and data security in COVID-19 tracking.