Industry Spotlight: Public Sector

Citizens and regulators remain worried that Nordic coronavirus surveillance technologies are a slippery slope towards a reduction of privacy.

The Norwegian Data Protection Authority shut down “Smittestopp” – Norway’s coronavirus tracking app – only two months after its launch due to a disproportionate interference in user privacy, and Denmark’s “Smittestop” has received criticism for not working appropriately. Our survey shows a mixed view among Nordic citizens towards governmental use of technology to monitor the spread of COVID-19. This raises the question where to draw the line between data privacy and pursuing “the greater good”.

Five key stats from the public sector:

Almost two thirds (65%) of the Nordic citizens actively restrict general apps’ access to information.
Two thirds (66%) of the Nordic citizens are concerned about how private companies use their private data, andone third (33%) is against governmental location tracking for coronavirus purposes.
More than two fifths (41%) of the Nordic citizens support governmental location tracking – Finns being the most supportive at 55%. Meanwhile, Sweden has more people against location tracking (35%) than supportive of if (34%).
Nordic 55-75 year olds are the most supportive of governmental location tracking (48%).
Almost half of the Nordic respondents (47%) support thermal cameras to track fevers to enforce quarantine rules. Meanwhile, there is a consensus that governments should not be able to monitor people’s health data.