COVID-19 Vaccine Passports and their Impact on Privacy and Autonomy

While most regions of the world are still struggling to get their hands on vaccines to protect themselves from the persistent threat of COVID-19, some countries such as Israel and the United Kingdom seem to make remarkable progress in their inoculation efforts. As of March 2021, a relatively large part of the population in these two countries has either been vaccinated or already suffered through the disease. This changed situation evokes the question whether this group of seemingly protected people should be allowed to go back to ‘normal’. Since 21st of February the ‘green pass’ allows the vaccinated and recovered in Israel access to gyms, hotels, swimming pools, concerts, and places of worship. In the meanwhile, countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Sweden and others have announced to consider the use of such immunity certifications, or vaccine passports. On March 1st, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen announced that the bloc will consider the introduction of a ‘Digital Green Certificate’ to provide proof of inoculation, test results of those not yet jabbed, and information on the holder’s recovery. An initial assessment of the proposal presented on 17 March comes to the conclusion that this standardization effort has no direct connection to health safety and includes many gaps when it comes to concrete technical implementation. It remains to be seen how this attempt to restore free movement will mature in the European Parliament before summer, when it is supposed to be applied in practice. The introduction of digital vaccine passports is the next wave of technology to fight the pandemic. It follows digital contact tracing apps, remote self-evaluation of symptoms, use of telecommunication and internet usage data for real-time surveillance and many others. Equally, it raises ethical, legal and social questions that we describe and discuss in more detail here. In this short commentary we focus on the introduction of vaccine passports from the perspectives of surveillance, data protection and privacy, as well as autonomy.