UK's COVID-19 Response Measures Include Using Confidential Patient Data - Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Tech firms are using large volumes of confidential patient information in order to provide UK authorities with real-time COVID-19 situation reports as part of London's measures to cope with the coronavirus outbreak, according to documents seen by The Guardian.

According to the reports, UK artificial intelligence startup Faculty and US big data firm Palantir are working together with NHSX, the digital unit of the National Health Service, to build a "COVID-19 datastore" and provide the government with aggregated statistics on hospitalisations, availability of critical care beds, ventilator orders, oxygen supplies, and other data.

The cited documents showed that confidential personal data used by the tech companies, contracted by NHSX, included information on patients' health, COVID-19 test results, the contents of people's calls to the NHS helpline, and other information that was expected to be protected.

"The companies involved do not control the data and are not permitted to use or share it for their own purpose", a spokesperson for NHSX said, according to the newspaper.

While Palantir has not responded to requests for comments by The Guardian, Faculty said it only used aggregated or anonymized information.

The United Kingdom has so far confirmed over 85,200 COVID-19 cases and over 10,600 fatalities. The country is now ranked fifth globally in terms of the confirmed coronavirus cases.