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As requiring proof of vaccination as a condition to participate in certain activities becomes more commonplace, Saskatchewan’s privacy commissioner would prefer a minimalist approach to verifying a person’s immunization status.
Ron Kruzeniski says each organization needs to figure out what information they need to keep and whether they’re able to get by without needing to store any of it.
Ideally for him, as little data as possible would be collected and whatever is in an organization’s possession should not be held for long. This minimizes the chances of it being compromised.
“Storage on a server where the potential of it being hacked … snooped on by employees who are on the inside, it just increases the risk,” Kruzeniski said.
“(It would be preferable to collect) less information (and) not sharing it with very many people and destroyed as soon as possible. Because once it’s destroyed, it can’t be hacked.”
In May, privacy commissioners across the country made a joint statement warning that the use of vaccine passports must respect laws concerning personal information.
They said vaccine passports could offer substantial public benefit but are also “an encroachment on civil liberties” that should only be done with “careful consideration.”
The commissioners said it needs to be established that vaccine passports are needed to achieve a public health purpose and are likely to accomplish their purposes, and that the privacy risks are proportionate to the public health issues they’re supposed to address.
As the commissioners have recommended, Kruzeniski advises every organization thinking about requiring proof of vaccination to get a legal opinion on whether they have the authority to make such a demand.
Currently, Saskatchewan residents who need to provide proof of vaccination can print a page from their MySaskHealthRecord account. However, there have been concerns that the record reveals more information than people need or want to disclose.
“It is a situation where we have personal preferences and some people are OK with sharing very personal, sensitive information and others are not,” Kruzeniski said.
“So when you come to proof of vaccination programs, the best way to go is to do the least amount of data (and keep it) for the least amount of time.”
In other cases, like at Saskatoon’s Amigo’s Cantina or the Regina Symphony Orchestra, the vaccine card given during immunization is being accepted.
This month, the provincial government is expected to unveil a QR (quick response) code that could verify somebody’s immunity status while avoiding privacy issues.
Still, Kruzeniski has more questions and wants to see the fine print.
“It resolves some of the issues. For example, if I go in and show my phone and the employer scans it, what do they save on their server? If they save nothing, then that is kind of a minimal approach,” he said.
“They still can be storing something. So again, it starts with getting legal advice, developing that policy and telling employees and customers, ‘Here’s what we’re doing.’ ”
