Privacy of Personal Health Information (eHealth) and Covid 19 Pandemic: The Sri Lankan Experience

Abstract

Privacy in relation to personal information is one of the most important facets of the concept of personal privacy as it demands that information that relates to a particular person shall remain private and secured. Covid-19 is a pandemic which affected the lives of almost all people in every corner of the world. The pandemic brought new challenges to governments, health authorities, and other private and public institutions so these authorities were compelled to introduce a number of control and preventive measures, in order to curtail the devastating impacts of the virus on public health. These measures include many preventive and control measures which have an invasive impact on the personal right to privacy. Sri Lanka also was also affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Sri Lankan Government imposed certain restrictions and control measures. However, the problem of whether the privacy of personal information was respected during in the context of Covid-19 is a question mark in the Sri Lankan context as there were a number of incidents where the privacy of personal information was risked. Sri Lanka does not have Constitutional protection for the Right to Privacy as a Fundamental Right under the Constitution of Sri Lanka or any Legislation on the Protection of Personal Information. In this context, this Article examines whether Sri Lanka has adequately responded to the need to assure the privacy of persons in collecting, accessing, sharing, and disclosing personal information in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.