Health privacy could be at risk with improper COVID-19 vaccination passports

Canada’s privacy commissioners and ombuds believe Canadians should think long and hard about agreeing to the idea of vaccine passports.

Vaccinations are an important tool to allow Canadians to return to the life they remember before the pandemic. But requiring people to prove their vaccination status before allowing them in to sporting events, for example, could be asking them to trade their privacy for access, the group says.

A Leger poll of Canadians and Americans found that 61 per cent of Canadians agree with their government implementing vaccine passports. The poll also found that 64 per cent of Canadians agree with governments making it so that those who show a valid passport can access restaurants, bars, gyms, concerts or sport venues.

An even higher percentage support vaccine passports for travel with 82 per cent of Canadians supporting the idea of non-Canadians having to prove they are vaccinated to come to this country. As well, 70 per cent agree that Canadians wishing to travel by air should have to prove their vaccination status.

Similar rates of agreement were found in an Ipsos survey for the World Economic Forum. About 75 per cent of adults across 28 countries agreed that COVID-19 vaccine passports should be required of travellers entering their country and that they would be effective in making travel and large events safe.

Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, says this country’s policy on vaccine passports will align with its allies and that Canada is in discussions with those countries on the matter.

Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial privacy commissioners and the ombuds of Manitoba and New Brunswick met recently and issued a joint statement asking Canadians to consider some key points when it comes to their health privacy.

If vaccine passports are to be implemented, it should only be because it is “necessary to achieve the intended public health purpose.” The passports should have “clear legal authority” and be developed through consultation with Canada’s commissioners and ombuds, the group says.

Any personal health information collected through the use of the passports should be destroyed.

The vaccine passports should no longer be used once the pandemic is over or they are no longer the appropriate tool to benefit public health.