Serious Doubts Over Legitimacy Of Credit Card Tracing

Brynjar Níelsson, MP for the Independence Party, has voiced serious doubts about the legality of the credit card tracing that has taken place in the fight against COVID-19, Vísir reports.

In a meeting of the Constitutional and Monitoring Committee this morning, Brynjar said, “I have to admit that I have serious doubts that there is a legal authority for this”.

In a recent interview, Helga Þórisdóttir, director of the Data Protection Authority explained that in extreme times such as these, the epidemiologist had the authority to request all and any data he deemed necessary whilst tracking the spread of infection, provided that he followed the general rules of the Privacy Act.

But Brynjar argues that the rights of those who are not suspected of being infected have been violated. “Someone would say that we are completely on the edge legally, and maybe we have gone beyond all limits”, he says.

Generally, a court order is required for access to the information that was provided through the credit card tracing, but Páll Hreinsson, who recently wrote an opinion piece on the powers of the epidemiological authorities, referred to the fact that the epidemiologist has a legal obligation to investigative group infection and that there is authorisation for infection tracing in the law.

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