Digital health

Definition

Dig­i­tal health refers to the use of infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion tech­nolo­gies in health­care. Dig­i­tal health includes a broad range of tech­nolo­gies, such as wear­able devices, mobile health, tele­health, health infor­ma­tion tech­nolo­gies, and telemed­i­cine. Dig­i­tal health tech­nolo­gies are used in a wide range of appli­ca­tions, from appli­ca­tions in gen­eral well­ness to appli­ca­tions as med­ical devices. Dig­i­tal health tech­nolo­gies includes tech­nolo­gies intended for use as med­ical prod­ucts, in a med­ical prod­uct, as com­pan­ion diag­nos­tic, or as a periph­eral to med­ical prod­ucts.

Har­ness­ing infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion tech­nolo­gies in health­care has the poten­tial to lower costs relat­ing to clinic vis­its, travel, or unpaid sick leave. Assis­tive dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies can con­tribute to the ful­fill­ment of the right to health for instance by per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties and by elders, par­tic­u­larly if these tech­nolo­gies are designed in con­sul­ta­tion with them. Dig­i­tal tools could also facil­i­tate improved analy­sis of epi­demi­o­log­i­cal trends, resource allo­ca­tion, dis­ease fore­cast­ing, devel­op­ment of novel prod­ucts, mon­i­tor­ing, among sev­eral other pos­si­ble advan­tages. Dig­i­tal health, how­ever, also rep­re­sents sev­eral risks. Dig­i­tal tools could be used, for instance, to per­pet­u­ate racism, sex­ism, ableism or dis­crim­i­na­tion based on sex­ual ori­en­ta­tion or gen­der iden­tity. Dig­i­tal health tools could also be used for arbi­trary and unlaw­ful inter­fer­ence with the right to pri­vacy.

Rec­og­niz­ing this, prece­dents reflected in the Lan­guage Com­pendium have affirmed that the same right that peo­ple have offline must also be pro­tected online, includ­ing the right to pri­vacy.

Precedents

2022 Resolution on the right to privacy in the digital age

• “Not­ing also that vio­la­tions and abuses of the right to pri­vacy in the dig­i­tal age can affect all indi­vid­u­als, with par­tic­u­lar effects on women, chil­dren, in par­tic­u­lar girls, per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties and older per­sons, as well as those in vul­ner­a­ble sit­u­a­tions” (p. 2)

• “Rec­og­niz­ing that new and emerg­ing dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies, in par­tic­u­lar assis­tive dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies, can espe­cially con­trib­ute to the full enjoy­ment of human rights by per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties, and that these tech­nolo­gies should be designed in con­sul­ta­tion with them and with appro­pri­ate safe­guards to pro­tect their rights, includ­ing their right to pri­vacy” (p. 2)

• “Rec­og­niz­ing also that the pro­mo­tion of and respect for the right to pri­vacy are impor­tant to the pre­ven­tion of vio­lence, includ­ing gen­der-based vio­lence, abuse and sex­ual harass­ment, in par­tic­u­lar against women and chil­dren, as well as any form of dis­crim­i­na­tion, which can occur in dig­i­tal and online spaces and includes cyber­bul­ly­ing and cyber­stalk­ing” (p. 3)

• “Reaf­firm­ing the human right to pri­vacy, accord­ing to which no one shall be sub­jected to arbi­trary or unlaw­ful inter­fer­ence with his or her pri­vacy, fam­ily, home or cor­re­spon­dence, and the right to the pro­tec­tion of the law against such inter­fer­ence, and rec­og­niz­ing that the exer­cise of the right to pri­vacy is impor­tant for the real­iza­tion of the right to free­dom of expres­sion and to hold opin­ions with­out inter­fer­ence and the right to free­dom of peace­ful assem­bly and asso­ci­a­tion, and is one of the foun­da­tions of a demo­c­ra­tic soci­ety” (p. 3)

• “Rec­og­niz­ing the need to fur­ther dis­cuss and analyse, based on inter­na­tional human rights law, issues relat­ing to the pro­mo­tion and pro­tec­tion of the right to pri­vacy in the dig­i­tal age, pro­ce­dural safe­guards, effec­tive domes­tic over­sight and reme­dies, the impact of sur­veil­lance on the right to pri­vacy and other human rights, as well as the need to exam­ine the prin­ci­ples of non-arbi­trari­ness, law­ful­ness, legal­ity, neces­sity and pro­por­tion­al­ity in rela­tion to sur­veil­lance prac­tices” (p. 3)

• “Rec­og­niz­ing fur­ther the need to ensure that inter­na­tional human rights oblig­a­tions are respected in the con­cep­tion, design, devel­op­ment, deploy­ment, eval­u­a­tion and reg­u­la­tion of data-dri­ven tech­nolo­gies and to ensure that they are sub­ject to ade­quate safe­guards and over­sight” (p. 3)

• “Rec­og­niz­ing that the right to pri­vacy is impor­tant for the enjoy­ment of other rights and can con­trib­ute to an indi­vid­ual’s abil­ity to par­tic­i­pate in polit­i­cal, eco­nomic, social and cul­tural life, and not­ing with con­cern that vio­la­tions or abuses of the right to be free from unlaw­ful or arbi­trary inter­fer­ence with the right to pri­vacy might affect the enjoy­ment of other human rights, includ­ing the right to free­dom of expres­sion and to hold opin­ions with­out inter­fer­ence, and the right to peace­ful assem­bly and free­dom of asso­ci­a­tion” (p. 3)

• “Rec­og­niz­ing that, while the use of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence can have sig­nif­i­cant pos­i­tive eco­nomic and social impacts, it requires and allows for the pro­cess­ing of large amounts of data, often relat­ing to per­sonal data, includ­ing bio­met­ric data and data on an indi­vid­ual’s behav­iour, social rela­tion­ships, race or eth­nic­ity, reli­gion or belief, which can pose seri­ous risks to the enjoy­ment of the right to pri­vacy, espe­cially when done with­out proper safe­guards, in par­tic­u­lar when employed for iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, track­ing, pro­fil­ing, facial recog­ni­tion, clas­si­fi­ca­tion, behav­iour pre­dic­tion or scor­ing of indi­vid­u­als” (p. 4)

• “Not­ing that the use of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence may, with­out proper tech­ni­cal, reg­u­la­tory, legal and eth­i­cal safe­guards, pose the risk of rein­forc­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion, includ­ing struc­tural inequal­i­ties, and rec­og­niz­ing that racially and oth­er­wise dis­crim­i­na­tory out­comes should be pre­vented in the design, devel­op­ment, imple­men­ta­tion and use of emerg­ing dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies” (p. 4)

• “Not­ing with con­cern that cer­tain pre­dic­tive algo­rithms are likely to result in dis­crim­i­na­tion, includ­ing when non-rep­re­sen­ta­tive data are used” (p. 4)

• “Not­ing that the use of algo­rith­mic or auto­mated deci­sion-mak­ing processes online can affect the enjoy­ment of indi­vid­u­als’ rights offline” (p. 5)

• “Stress­ing also the need to ensure that national secu­rity and pub­lic health mea­sures, includ­ing the use of tech­nol­ogy to mon­i­tor and con­tain the spread of infec­tious dis­eases, are in full com­pli­ance with the oblig­a­tions of States under inter­na­tional human rights law and adhere to the prin­ci­ples of law­ful­ness, legal­ity, legit­i­macy with regard to the aim pur­sued, neces­sity and pro­por­tion­al­ity and the need to pro­tect human rights, includ­ing the right to pri­vacy, and per­sonal data in the response to health or other emer­gen­cies” (p. 5)

• “Not­ing the impor­tance of pro­tect­ing and respect­ing the right of indi­vid­u­als to pri­vacy when design­ing, devel­op­ing or deploy­ing tech­no­log­i­cal means in response to dis­as­ters, epi­demics and pan­demics, espe­cially the coro­n­avirus dis­ease (COVID-19) pan­demic, includ­ing dig­i­tal expo­sure noti­fi­ca­tion and con­tact trac­ing” (p. 5)

• “Not­ing also that new and emerg­ing dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies can con­trib­ute to the recov­ery from global health emer­gen­cies, includ­ing the COVID-19 pan­demic, and recall­ing in this regard the impor­tance of pro­tect­ing human health-related and other per­sonal data, while not­ing with con­cern that some efforts to com­bat the COVID-19 pan­demic have an adverse impact on the enjoy­ment of the right to pri­vacy” (p. 6)

• “Affirms that the same rights that peo­ple have offline must also be pro­tected online, includ­ing the right to pri­vacy, with spe­cial regard given to the pro­tec­tion of chil­dren” (p. 7)

• “Acknowl­edges that the con­cep­tion, design, use, deploy­ment and fur­ther devel­op­ment of new and emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies, such as those that involve arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, may have an impact on the enjoy­ment of the right to pri­vacy and other human rights, and that the risks to these rights can and should be avoided and min­i­mized by adapt­ing or adopt­ing ade­quate reg­u­la­tion or other appro­pri­ate mech­a­nisms, in accor­dance with applic­a­ble oblig­a­tions under inter­na­tional human rights law, for the con­cep­tion, design, devel­op­ment and deploy­ment of new and emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies, includ­ing arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, by tak­ing mea­sures to ensure a safe, trans­par­ent, account­able, secure and high qual­ity data infra­struc­ture and by devel­op­ing human rights-based audit­ing mech­a­nisms and redress mech­a­nisms and estab­lish­ing human over­sight” (p. 7)

2022 HRC Res­o­lu­tion on ensuring equitable, affordable, timely and universal access for all countries to vaccines in response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic

• “Urges States to lever­age dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies for the response to COVID-19, includ­ing in sup­port of effi­cient, trans­par­ent and robust immu­niza­tion, address­ing the socioe­co­nomic impact of COVID-19, pay­ing par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to dig­i­tal inclu­sion, patient empow­er­ment and the right to pri­vacy and pro­tec­tion of per­sonal data” (p. 5)

2021 HRC Global call for concrete action against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance

• “Rec­og­niz­ing that the design and use of emerg­ing dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies can exac­er­bate and com­pound exist­ing inequal­i­ties, many of which exist on racial, eth­nic and national ori­gin grounds, and that a major con­cern is the preva­lence of emerg­ing dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies in deter­min­ing every­day out­comes in employ­ment, edu­ca­tion, health care and crim­i­nal jus­tice, which intro­duces the risk of sys­tem­ized dis­crim­i­na­tion on an unprece­dented scale” (p. 3)

2021 HRC Res­o­lu­tion on the right to privacy in the digital age

• “Not­ing the impor­tance of pro­tect­ing and respect­ing the right of indi­vid­u­als to pri­vacy when design­ing, devel­op­ing or deploy­ing tech­no­log­i­cal means in response to dis­as­ters, epi­demics and pan­demics, espe­cially the coro­n­avirus dis­ease (COVID-19) pan­demic, includ­ing dig­i­tal expo­sure noti­fi­ca­tion and con­tact trac­ing” (p. 4)

• “Not­ing also that new and emerg­ing dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies can con­trib­ute to fight­ing the COVID-19 pan­demic, and recall­ing in this regard the impor­tance of pro­tect­ing health-related data, while not­ing with con­cern that some efforts to com­bat the COVID-19 pan­demic have an adverse impact on the enjoy­ment of the right to pri­vacy” (p. 4)

• “Affirms that the same rights that peo­ple have offline must also be pro­tected online, includ­ing the right to pri­vacy” (p. 4)

2021 HRC Res­o­lu­tion on ensuring equitable, affordable, timely and universal access for all countries to vaccines in response to COVID-19

• “Urges States to lever­age dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies for the response to COVID-19, includ­ing in sup­port of effi­cient, trans­par­ent and robust immu­niza­tion, address­ing the socioe­co­nomic impact of COVID-19, pay­ing par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to dig­i­tal inclu­sion, patient empow­er­ment and the right to pri­vacy and pro­tec­tion of per­sonal data” (p. 5)

2020 Resolution on comprehensive and coordinated response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic

• “Express­ing con­cern about the spread of dis­in­for­ma­tion and pro­pa­ganda, includ­ing on the Inter­net, which can be designed and imple­mented so as to mis­lead, to vio­late human rights, includ­ing the right to pri­vacy and to free­dom of expres­sion, and to incite vio­lence, hatred, dis­crim­i­na­tion or hos­til­ity, and empha­siz­ing the impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion of jour­nal­ists and media work­ers in coun­ter­ing this trend” (p. 5)

2020 Resolution on the right to privacy in the digital age

• “Stress­ing also the need to ensure that national secu­rity and pub­lic health mea­sures, includ­ing the use of tech­nol­ogy to mon­i­tor and con­tain the spread of infec­tious dis­eases, are in full com­pli­ance with the oblig­a­tions of States under inter­na­tional human rights law and adhere to the prin­ci­ples of law­ful­ness, legal­ity, legit­i­macy with regard to the aim pur­sued, neces­sity and pro­por­tion­al­ity and the need to pro­tect human rights, includ­ing the right to pri­vacy, and per­sonal data in the response to health or other emer­gen­cies” (p. 5)

• “Not­ing the impor­tance of pro­tect­ing and respect­ing the right of indi­vid­u­als to pri­vacy when design­ing, devel­op­ing or deploy­ing tech­no­log­i­cal means in response to dis­as­ters, epi­demics and pan­demics, espe­cially the coro­n­avirus dis­ease (COVID -19) pan­demic, includ­ing dig­i­tal expo­sure noti­fi­ca­tion and con­tact trac­ing” (p. 5)

• “Acknowl­edges that the con­cep­tion, design, use, deploy­ment and fur­ther devel­op­ment of new and emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies, such as those that involve arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, may have an impact on the enjoy­ment of the right to pri­vacy and other human rights, and that the risks to these rights can and should be avoided and min­i­mized by adapt­ing or adopt­ing ade­quate reg­u­la­tion or other appro­pri­ate mech­a­nisms, in accor­dance with applic­a­ble oblig­a­tions under inter­na­tional human rights law, for the con­cep­tion, design, devel­op­ment and deploy­ment of new and emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies, includ­ing arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, by tak­ing mea­sures to ensure a safe, trans­par­ent, account­able, secure and high qual­ity data infra­struc­ture and by devel­op­ing human rights-based audit­ing mech­a­nisms and redress mech­a­nisms and estab­lish­ing human over­sight” (p. 5)

2019 HRC Res­o­lu­tion on the right to privacy in the digital age

• “Rec­og­niz­ing the need for Gov­ern­ments, the pri­vate sec­tor, inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions, civil soci­ety, the tech­ni­cal and aca­d­e­mic com­mu­ni­ties and all rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers to be cog­nizant of the impact, oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges of rapid tech­no­log­i­cal change on the pro­mo­tion and pro­tec­tion of human rights, as well as of its poten­tial to facil­i­tate efforts, to accel­er­ate human progress and to pro­mote and pro­tect human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms” (p. 2)

• “Acknowl­edges that the use, deploy­ment and fur­ther devel­op­ment of new and emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies, such as arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, can impact the enjoy­ment of the right to pri­vacy and other human rights, and that the risks to the right to pri­vacy can and should be min­i­mized by adopt­ing ade­quate reg­u­la­tion or other appro­pri­ate mech­a­nisms, includ­ing by tak­ing into account inter­na­tional human rights law in the design, devel­op­ment and deploy­ment of new and emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies, such as arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, by ensur­ing a safe, secure and high-qual­ity data infra­struc­ture and by devel­op­ing human-cen­tred audit­ing mech­a­nisms, as well as redress mech­a­nisms” (p. 2)

• “Not­ing that the use of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence may, with­out ade­quate safe­guards, pose the risk of rein­forc­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion, includ­ing struc­tural inequal­i­ties” (p. 3)

• “Not­ing with con­cern that auto­matic pro­cess­ing of per­sonal data for indi­vid­ual pro­fil­ing, auto­mated deci­sion-mak­ing and machine learn­ing tech­nolo­gies may, with­out ade­quate safe­guards, lead to dis­crim­i­na­tion or deci­sions that oth­er­wise have the poten­tial to affect the enjoy­ment of human rights, includ­ing eco­nomic, social and cul­tural rights, and rec­og­niz­ing the need to apply inter­na­tional human rights law in the design, devel­op­ment, deploy­ment, eval­u­a­tion and reg­u­la­tion of these tech­nolo­gies, and to ensure they are sub­ject to ade­quate safe­guards and over­sight” (p. 3)

• “Affirms that the same rights that peo­ple have offline must also be pro­tected online, includ­ing the right to pri­vacy” (p. 4)

• “Not­ing that the use of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence can con­trib­ute to the pro­mo­tion and pro­tec­tion of human rights, and can also have far-reach­ing and global impli­ca­tions, includ­ing with regard to the right to pri­vacy, that are trans­form­ing Gov­ern­ments and soci­eties, eco­nomic sec­tors and the world of work” (pp. 2–3)

2019 Resolution on science, technology and innovation for sustainable development

• “Rec­og­niz­ing fur­ther the impor­tance of data pro­tec­tion and pri­vacy, in par­tic­u­lar for devel­op­ing coun­tries in the con­text of sci­ence and tech­nol­ogy for devel­op­ment, espe­cially regard­ing the adop­tion of new tech­nolo­gies” (p. 3)