COVID certificate for access to establishments

The already famous and well known by all, COVID Digital EU Certificate, whose primary function is to facilitate the “free and secure” movement of citizens within the European Union during the pandemic of Covid-19The Spanish Data Protection Agency (Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD) on the occasion of the increase of public initiatives that generalize the use of the vaccination certificate for access to various establishments, has taken the decision to submit several requests for information, addressed to the Health Departments of different autonomous communities, specifically in this case, have been the Canary Islands and Galicia, those consulted, in order to verify and weigh the lawfulness of the processing of personal data derived from these actions.

In addition, it also confirms the existing concern among the European data protection authorities about the use of the certificate within the States for purposes such as:

Access to stores
Access to bars and restaurants
Access to gyms
Use in the work/business environment

And all this concern comes from the importance of the awareness that vaccination is not compulsory, and in addition, there are groups that cannot receive the vaccine for medical reasons, among others, and that, in any case, the vaccination process is being carried out by means of criteria that prioritize by groups of people and specific characteristics, which means that part of the population has not yet had access to vaccination. The ultimate aim of all this control work carried out by the AEPD and the European Authorities is to avoid discrimination between people, for whatever reason, because a person has not been vaccinated.

Consequently, it is being warned that the use of certificates with the purpose of accrediting the health status or situation on vaccination as prevention against COVID-19, implies the need to have a sustainable legal basis and sustained in the Principles of:

Efficiency
Need
Proportionality

Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the existence of other protection measures that may be considered less invasive, thus avoiding, as far as possible, discriminatory effects and establishing adequate guarantees.

Likewise, the Ministry of Health made it clear that the vaccination certificate or Covid-19 has not been created for the purpose of controlling access to premises and businesses.

Finally concluding, it seems that the idea that the use of the certificate for the purpose of limiting or facilitating access to bars, stores, among other establishments, will finally be considered as an illegal act, for violating the right to data protection of citizens, is gaining a lot of weight. Since these are highly vulnerable data, being that health and medical data are Special Category data, which always require greater protection against third parties.

Finally, the sources of this news also remind us that the Autonomous Communities do not have the legal authority or competence to force the self-employed and businesses to request this certificate from their customers in order to allow them to pass.

The importance of protecting “special category” data

With this news, once again, we remind you of the importance of protecting personal data, and specifically Special Category data. In whose treatment, the measures to be applied for their protection must be much more restrictive, because it must be avoided that the data obtained are used for a different purpose for which it was provided, thus avoiding the impact on other rights and freedoms. This is because certain health information could be used incorrectly, which could lead to labor and social discrimination, generating legal uncertainty and controversies to be resolved before the judges and courts competent in such matters.

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