In 2022, ECNL, the International Network of Civil Liberties Organisations (INCLO) and Privacy International (PI) conducted a global study tracking negative impacts of surveillance technology and measures deployed during the COVID-19 pandemic on activist movements and organisations, which we published in our joint report.
Karolina Iwańska, Digital Civic Space Advisor at ECNL, shared these key findings during the COVI committee hearing (full video here) on fundamental rights and COVID-19, organised in Brussels on 31 January 2023.
Some key points we raised include the following:
- The development and adoption of digital solutions was very hasty and often lacked any assessment of legality, necessity and proportionality.
- We have seen instances of unlawful and disproportionate limitations to fundamental rights safeguards under the pretext of “emergency”.
- We have noted cases involving the repurposing of surveillance technologies and the risk of their normalisation beyond the pandemic.
- During the pandemic, the use of surveillance tools was largely ad-hoc and uncoordinated.
Some of these observations and recommendations have also been included in reports published by the Fundamental Rights Agency and by the Council of Europe.
However, the draft report of the COVI committee does not recognise any of these important lessons. For that reason we have sent written comments and recommendations for amendments to their draft report.