Applicazioni di tracciamento a tutela della salute e protezione dei dati personali nell’era Covid-19: quale (nuovo) bilanciamento tra diritti?

The Covid-19 pandemic confronted all national, EU and international legal systems with the challenge of addressing the balance between fundamental rights – and among them, the right to the protection of personal data governed by the GDPR and the relevant CJEU case-law – in the light of the pressing need to protect public health, also through the use of tracking applications which, by their very nature, entail significant interference with the right enshrined in art. 8 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. In this context, this article seeks to explore to what extent it is possible to combine these two different needs, so as to assess the choices made by some EU Member States as well as by so-called “adequate” third countries (art. 45 GDPR) or countries aspiring to the EU adequacy status.