Security and Privacy Issues Associated with Coronavirus Diagnosis and Prognosis

The urgency of the need to manage and find a cure for the COVID-19 has made it necessary to share information. However, sharing information involves potential risks that are inevitably likely to infringe individual privacy. Therefore, whether permissible under extenuation circumstances or not, sharing and handling of information for medical diagnosis and prognosis need consideration without ignoring the need to protect privacy. This makes it important to strike a balance between protecting individual privacy and collecting information to combat the virus, the responsibility for doing so rests with the state. However, circumstances in which the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be accelerating, the medical professionals and the government seem to be focusing more on collecting information that could be used to limit the extent of the outbreak and mitigate the risks. Such a strategy overrides perception of the need to protect personal privacy. This paper discusses the security and privacy challenges associated with SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis and prognosis using case studies from different countries.