Information Commissioner Mojca Prelesnik was an adament opponent of the Stay Healthy application, claiming that the state was introducing a police state. However, she defended all the unauthorized insights of police officers into the files of members of Parliament during Šarec’s government, claiming that they were completely legal. Later, she also opposed to the measuring of temperature in companies, which could have led to a safer working environment. This time, the former information commissioner Nataša Pirc Musar came forward and supported the application. “Download the Stay Healthy app, it’s ok from a privacy perspective. I downloaded it myslef the first day when the NIJZ made it available for the iOS operating system, ”Pirc Musar said on Twitter.
Information Commissioner Mojca Prelesnik claimed that the application hinted at the introduction of a police state. Her position was very interesting, as she supported the unauthorized insights of the police into the files of members of Parliament, during the government of Marjan Šarec. Yet, she is opposing the application, which is practically used throughout democratic Europe. She also opposed the decision to measure temperature at work places for preventive reasons.
If the virus appears at a work place, it can completely stop work operations, and it even worse scenario, it can transmit to high-risk patients, parents and grandparents. Obviously, Prelesnik was of the opinion that the employer was not obliged to provide the employees with a healthy working environment, otherwise she would not have emphasised how measuring temperature would cause distress to employers and other managers as they would have to decide whether the measurement is really necessary. She came to the conclusion that measuring temperature does not always make sense. She defended the belief that this was a measure which, if not properly implemented, could lead to mass and illegal collection of personal data.
The application does not interfere with personal data
Former Information Commissioner and journalist Nataša Pirc Musar uses the Stay Healthy application and also supports it, as in her opinion it is perfectly suitable from the point of view of data protection. “Download the Stay Healthy app, it’s ok from a privacy perspective. I have downloaded it from the first day when the NIJZ made it available for the iOS operating system,” she said on Twitter. Unlike Prelesnik, Pirc Musar understands her profession and at the same time the importance of saving lives during a pandemic and containing the virus.
Given that we have come to a time when the number of infections is significantly increasing, it is difficult to understand why Prelesnik decided to use such a message to call for disregard for the measures implemented on the basis of the medical profession. Her legal arguments also seem to be on shaky ground, thus she is often reminiscent of an institution that opposes things simply because it causes the government headaches.