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The Government will put all the police authorities in charge of inspecting the Portuguese who, having a mobile phone, have not installed the “StayAway Covid” application.
The planned fines can reach up to 500 euros. In the draft bill that the Executive delivered to Parliament on Wednesday night, and to which the JN had access, it is said that the use of the “StayAway Covid” application will be “mandatory, in the workplace or similar, school and academic context “. by equipment owners who allow it ”.
For this, the application of the new law will be “the responsibility of the Republican National Guard, the Public Security Police, the Maritime Police and the Municipal Police,” the document says.
The Executive led by António Costa also proposes that all public and related employees be forced to install the application. The obligation “covers in particular workers in public functions, employees and agents of the Public Administration, including the state, regional and local business sector, professionals of the Armed Forces and security forces”, specifies the bill.
On Wednesday, the Data Protection Commission rejected the government’s intention to force the use of the “StayAway Covid” app, which has been downloaded 1.2 million times since the end of August. “Serious privacy problems”, “strong ethical reservations” and legislation that is “difficult to enforce” are the deficiencies that the entity in charge of guaranteeing Portuguese privacy once again pointed out, on a day when the country broke a record of new infections (2072 ).
At the origin of the reaction is the guarantee of António Costa, yesterday after the Council of Ministers that declared the situation of calamity [ler ao lado], that the Government will ask Parliament for “an urgent procedure to impose the mandatory use of the mask on public roads” and “also for the StayAway application.”
For the National Data Protection Commission (CNPD), “imposing by law the use of the” StayAway “application, in any context, raises serious questions related to the privacy of citizens, eliminating the possibility of choosing, if they so wish. , do not give control of your location and movements to third parties “. CNPD also reminded JN of the reservations it had when it commented on the launch of the application and emphasized the need for it to be “voluntary”. But the organization goes further: “No country, out of a total of 55 countries adhered to the Data Protection Convention, has compulsorily implemented this type of application.”
“Voluntary” and “safe”
The prime minister, who has requested the use of the app – which he described as “essential, voluntary, confidential and safe” – stressed that the imposition would be “in the work, school and academic context, in the Armed Forces and security, and in the public administration as a whole “. Government source explained to JN that, given the “sensitivity of the issue”, Costa wants Parliament to decide. But the parties are reluctant.
Among constitutionalists, if the obligation to wear a mask is consensual, that of the application raises more doubts. Jonatas Machado and Bacelar Gouveia consider that “for the protection of people” the constitutionality of the application will not raise any doubts. For Reis Novais, “the Government cannot impose the acquisition of a next-generation mobile phone and an operating system that allows the use of the application”: “As it would be an unconstitutional norm, I hope it has been a communication lapse on the part of the Prime Minister Minister “.
It is this doubt that four of the banks raise. Fonte do BE assumed, for JN, that “it would be difficult to enforce and unacceptable in a state of law” such an obligation. As well as the centrist Ana Rita Bessa, who said that the imposition of the application was “legally complicated.”
For JN, Bebiana Cunha (PAN) called “first an evaluation of the use of the application, instead of running the risk of violating the Constitution.” The Liberal Initiative has warned that it can appeal to the Constitutional Court. The other parties prefer to wait for the government’s proposal.
INESC TEC, which designed the application, admitted to JN that it was unaware of “the government’s intention.”
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