test and trace unlawfull from inception is it another scam /uncalled for

https://www.lawyer-monthly.com/2020/07/englands-test-and-trace-programme-unlawful-in-breaching-gdpr/
England’s Test and Trace Programme in “Unlawful” Breach of GDPR
New admissions by the Department of Health indicating that its contact-tracing initiative was carried out without proper impact assessment has reignited accusations of unlawful conduct.

The Department of Health has conceded that its initiative aimed at tracing contacts of people infected with the COVID-19 virus was launched without conducting an assessment of its impact on the privacy of those involved.

Under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), data protection impact assessments are legally required to be made as part of any project that involves processing personal data. By admitting its failure to comply with this regulation, the Department of Health has conceded that its coronavirus contact-tracing system has been operating unlawfully since its launch on 28 May, according to the Open Rights Group (ORG).

To track the spread of COVID-19 infections, the Track and Trace programme requires people to share information that may be sensitive. This includes their name and address, people they live with, places they have visited and the names and contact details of people who have been in close contact with them, which may include sexual partners.

Jim Killock, executive director of ORG, described the government’s bypassing of the assessment process “reckless” and an endangerment of public health.

“A crucial element in the fight against the pandemic is mutual trust between the public and the government, which is undermined by their operating the programme without basic privacy safeguards,” he said.
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Defending the programme, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has stated that “In no way has [there] been a breach of any of the data that has been stored”.

Other legal specialists have also criticised the government’s actions. Susan Hall, partner and specialist in information and communications technology atClarke Willmott LLP, commented: “If no Data Privacy Implementation Assessment (DPIA) has been carried out for the NHS Test and Trace app, the Government is in blatant breach of Article 35 GDPR which requires DPIAs in these circumstances.”

“The Government comment that “there is no evidence of data being used unlawfully” betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of DPIAs,” she continued. “As Recital 90 GDPR makes clear, DPIAs are intended to be carried out before any processing takes place, as a way of finding out where the risks of data leakage or misuse exist in the proposed scheme and pre-emptively blocking those risks, e.g. by enhanced technical or organisational security measures. It was clear from an early stage that Test and Trace programmes would be needed so the DPIA should have been carried out then.”

Parallel contact-tracing schemes are being carried out in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but have not been accused of failing to comply with GDPR alongside their English counterpart.

Anna Brees
6 days ago (edited)
Received today. I have asked this person to provide proof of their employment and they have.

Hi Anna

Messaged you on Twitter RE: Contact Tracing and would like to share my experience with it as I do not believe the mainstream media are giving any balanced or truthful view of what is actually going on.

I will just run you through what my experience has been from the start, I feel like it won’t be hugely dissimilar to other whistleblowers accounts of the situation.

When the Covid hysteria / scandal started I lost my job in the travel industry much to my heartbreak as I loved my job. I quickly found myself in a situation where I needed an income just to get myself through. I came across a job advertisement on the ‘Indeed’ website called ‘Work from home customer service’. I applied on 10/05/20. There was no information as to what company I would be doing the customer service for but it did advertise the company that won the contract for the NHS track and trace campaign, they are called Sitel.

On 12/05/20 I was asked to confirm my computer systems info / memory / space to make sure that I was able to install their work platform. In the meantime I got a call to ask if I had done any customer service work in the past, to which I replied ‘Yes’, I got the job on that basis alone. There was no interview and that was the only question they asked.

13/05/20 I received my ‘confirmation of job offer’ e-mail / letter.

14/05/20 I had a DBS check done paid for by the company.

15/05/20 I was sent details for the online training session which was a full work days worth of so called ‘training’. I expected I would then be told who I would be doing the customer service for and have in depth training, which would be ongoing. This was not the case.

16/05/20 I joined the online training day chat room with 2 trainers and over 100 people. The first hour we did nothing but test everyone’s microphones / headsets were working. We were then told that we would be working on the NHS track and trace. The rest of the day was all about the company ‘Sitel’. How we should set up workstations at home and their values etc. We had 30 mins to 1 hours discussing the systems that we would use on the NHS track and trace program and that was it. Now this is what frustrates me, we have mainstream media and Matt Hancock saying ‘we have recruited highly trained contact tracers’, nothing could be further from the truth! We had virtually no training.

We were then told that the next day (17/05/20) we would have to do what they call ‘self led learning’, which was nothing more than some online slideshows. The trainer said ‘just bash it out first thing in the morning, then you can have the rest of the day to yourself, don’t worry you’ll be paid for the entire day’.

18/05/20 was the apparent ‘go live’ day for the track and trace program, this did not happen and it was a further 10 days until the government gave the go live date, which was on 28/05/20. Now, in between the 18th and 28th of May 2020 there were hundreds of us in chat rooms all day, doing NOTHING. We were getting paid for this courtesy of the tax payer. No one knew what they were doing, how the systems worked and the team leaders were playing games and quizzes to pass the time. On average after tax we all clear about 379 quid per week (weekly paid). What struck me was that no one had any GDPR training, we had access to patients records and details, which in my view was a massive privacy issue.

It wasn’t until 01/06/20 that I received my first ‘contact’ to call. Needless to say they didn’t answer the phone. Since then I have had a maximum of only 3 contacts and I have never spoken with them as they all went to voicemail.

The government is lying about how effective this is and has been. There has barely been anyone who has taken up this service, there are several chat rooms each with 60/70 people in just waiting to get calls. In my particular chat room 99 percent of people haven’t had a single contact for almost 3 weeks. Some have had the odd 1, but mainly they get hung up on. The sad thing is that the other colleagues in the chat room are actually buying into this government agenda, they don’t seem to find it very odd that there has been an apparent ‘deadly pandemic’ but yet we have NO contacts.. That’s impossible, they also seem to be getting very excited at the prospect of a ‘second wave’, which by now we should’ve certainly had from VE day, pubs opening, beach goers etc and I’m still waiting for the first wave!

People ‘work’ a five day week on a rostered basis. These shifts start and finish between 08:00 and 20:00. We are basically being paid to sit in a chat room and discuss our hobbies, what food we enjoy, what is our favorite alcoholic beverage etc all day. I have tried on many occasions to voice my skepticism on the campaign, to which I met with a barrage of abuse by the colleagues who couldn’t possible critically think and question the government narrative / agenda. I then get ‘told off’ via private message by the team leader who says ‘they’re concerned about my view on the ‘pandemic’, and that if COVID wasn’t serious we wouldn’t be here’. They also went onto say that I ‘Shouldn’t voice my opinions as most will disagree with you’. What’s being covered up here?! We have also been forbidden to speak to the media, I wonder why, possibly because it’ll be outed as this biggest dead duck ever!? Its all smoke and mirrors and people need to know what’s really happening!

We have 3 ‘tiers’ of workers. Tier 3 are the contact tracers and they are paid 10 pound per hour, Tier 2 are the team leaders, supervisors etc and they are paid circa 18 pounds per hour and then tier 1 are the health professionals and nurses who are on circa 27 pound per hour. So you see there is a HUGE waste of public money here.

I could go on. I have probably missed other things I wanted to say but please do let me know if you want more info on anything in particular etc. More than happy to help! Feel free to use any of this info, just don’t include my name!

Many thanks