Mobile apps for health surveillance: Balancing public health needs with the privacy of personal data

The privacy of personal information is aimed at protecting human rights both under 
\nthe international human rights regime and the Saudi Arabian constitution and other statutes and 
\nregulations, subject only to some exceptions that include the protection of public health. The 
\ncoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought about certain challenges that 
\nnecessitate strategies to augment the conventional surveillance of infectious diseases, contact 
\ntracing, isolation, reporting and vaccination. Several governments institutions, and agencies 
\npresently adopt mobile applications for collecting, analyzing, managing, and sharing critical 
\npersonal data of individuals infected with or exposed to COVID-19. While the benefits of 
\nsharing private information for achieving public health needs may not be disputed, the risk of 
\nbreach of personal privacy is enormous. This had forced the national governments into a 
\ndilemma of either succumbing to public health needs, strictly respecting and protecting the 
\nprivacy of individuals, or alternatively, balancing the two conflicting demands. There is a 
\nmassive body of literature on the security and privacy of such mobile applications, but none 
\nhas adequately explored and discussed public interest justifications under Saudi Arabian laws 
\nfor alleged privacy breaches. We examined the health surveillance mobile app technologies 
\ncurrently in use in Saudi Arabia with the aim of determining the potential risks of data breaches 
\nunder extant data protection laws. The paper recommends, among others, that any potential 
\nrisk of breach to right to privacy of personal information under the law must be (justified by) 
\nthe public health needs to protect society during the COVID-19 pandemic.