Tuesday, May 12, 2020

In an op-ed for the Toronto Star, published May 12 ("The Big Debate: Should those with immunity get a COVID-19 digital passport?") U of T Law Professor Sophia Moreau and Queen's Law Professor Sabine Tsuruda, say digital immunity passports for COVID-19 raise troubling moral and legal issues.

"We support widespread vaccination against COVID-19, once a vaccine is available. But there are different ways of facilitating vaccination, and they are not morally and legally on a par.

Some are proposing that we should be required to register our vaccination status with the government and carry digital passports via a smartphone app to repeatedly verify our immunity status as we go about our lives. This proposal is far more invasive than the vaccination programs that we already have in schools.

Canada aims vigorously to protect people’s privacy rights. Are we now going to require people to submit to government tracking and entrust a panoply of private actors—ranging from Apple and Scotiabank Arena, to bosses and store clerks—with medical information? Will the application also share information about where we go and what we do with third parties, as apps commonly do? Will the app be designed to give the government this further information?"

Read The Big Debate in the Toronto Star