As many tenders are decommissioned to work on the NHS COVID app amid usage falling, ICO reflects on supporting the national response to the pandemic under the radar to protect people’s right to privacy.
The ICO is an executive non-departmental public entity sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology which hit headlines for taking legal action against TikTok after it found over a million younger users were using the platform without parental consent.
However the scope of ICO’s work is more extensive. Offering early support on the COVID app, the ICO played a crucial role in clarifying the parameters of collecting data for COVID management, ensuring that data was deleted once the app was no longer required.
In Scotland, the ICO supported the development of the Protect Scotland app.
