Consumer centric Health passes stage at scale digital transformation for aligned Fintechs through economy wide data mobility models
Joanne Cooper, CEO of data-sharing pioneer Australian Data Exchange, today said Australia and other governments need to ensure the right data sharing platforms are in place before international health passes are introduced.
Without it, international travel borders will be slow or restricted when they reopen during and post-COVID-19, costing the world economy billions, Ms Cooper said. “The key to successful global collaboration is universal protection of consumer’s information and privacy rights around accessibility to sensitive data,” she said.
“It’s critical that personal data is governed correctly at the intersection of security check points and border controls,” Ms Cooper added. Consumer-centric data platforms designed with robust data mobility frameworks can provide secure pathways to combine COVID-19 tests, vaccination and health records. “Global, interoperable systems will support governments, airlines, business, and travel operators to safely restore overseas mobility,” she said. “But governments need to act now.”
“It is highly problematic if incompatible standards and principles are applied by various governments to identify a citizen’s health status – not only for one’s own or the destination community’s safety but also to ensure protection of identity theft and fraud risks,” Ms Cooper said.
Airlines are already reporting cases of counterfeit COVID-19 test results being presented for travel, and the incidence is expected to increase dramatically as requirements shift from test results to proof of vaccination. “This is a global issue that requires global collaboration as well as adhering to rigorous compliance to address various regulations, border force requirements, data protection and safety mandates.”
Ms Cooper has recently joined the advocacy committee of The Good Health Pass Collaborative – a project of ID2020 – a global digital identity alliance. Since February, the Collaborative has brought together more than 100 organisations and companies around the world including Mastercard, Salesforce and digi.me plus peak aviation and travel bodies to develop foundational principles and standards for a globally recognised digital health pass system.
A strong advocate to governments around the world herself, Cooper’s first advice to the Good Health Pass Collaborative was to engage with the Australian government, as the organisation had with the White House’s Biden Administration and UK Cabinet Office to align international blueprints on how cohesively address this global requirement.
This week, the Good Health Pass Collaborative sent a letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison offering the support and collaboration and urging the government to:
Embrace the Good Health Pass Collaborative principles and incorporate them as the basis for any forthcoming guidelines or legislation related to digital health passes.
Convene a high-level roundtable discussion – or advisory panel – to include senior representatives from the appropriate ministries as well as industry leaders from the travel and tourism, health, and technology sectors as well as civil society organizations that focus on digital privacy and health equity.
Issue preliminary guidance to define the range of appropriate use cases for digital health passes in Australia, recognizing that circumstances and official public health guidance may evolve over time.
The Collaborative recently released its first white paper, entitled, Good Health Pass: A Safe Path to Global Reopening, which outlines guiding principles that its members believe should underlie the development of all digital health pass systems.
In June, the Collaborative will release two further publications, the Good Health Pass Interoperability Blueprint, and Governance Framework Recommendations. These documents will offer actionable guidance for policymakers, implementing agencies and ministries, and standards-setting organisations – as well as for companies that are developing digital health pass solutions.
Cooper says, “The good news is there are highly secure data-utility platforms available to governments which are already ahead of policy on privacy and security matters essential for consumer confidence. The pandemic has only made onboarding these emerging platforms more urgent. London-based digi.me (which ADX represents in Australia) has already seamlessly integrated vaccination records from the UK’s NHS in a production ready environment.”
Cooper ends by saying “Australian Data Exchange’s core focus has always been privacy-first data exchange. Just like vaccinations, trust and confidence is key to people being willing to share their COVID19 status. Just as the virus doesn’t discriminate between borders, nor should the overarching security and privacy standards. It is an extremely pivotal time for technology firms to demonstrate the power of privacy, ethics, and trusted data exchange when it is needed the most and prove to citizens that a pandemic is not the excuse for unethical data grabs.”
