Data protection and research: A vital challenge in the era of COVID-19 pandemic
Gianclaudio Malgieri
Abstract
The issue of data protection in research is becoming of pivotal importance, in particular in the last months with the pandemic emergency of COVID-19. 1 Studying the development of the outbreak on affected populations under a scientific and statistic perspective is necessary to understand the trend of contagion, the effectiveness of social distancing measures, the most vulnerable people who are the target of the virus, etc.This has posed several questions in terms of privacy and data protection. 2Medical researchers and even data scientists might use health data of patients for secondary purposes, different from the original purpose of the mere provision of healthcare services.In addition, researchers might analyse telcom data, such as location data, 3 of patients (or just of citizens of mostly affected area) to understand their movements and the spread of the virus. 4 Also, beyond research, these data