The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the need for more contactless interactions, leading to an acceleration in the
design, development, and deployment of digital identity tools and contact-free solutions. A potentially positive
outcome of the current crisis could be the development of a more data privacy and human rights compliant ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the need for more contactless interactions, leading to an acceleration in the
design, development, and deployment of digital identity tools and contact-free solutions. A potentially positive
outcome of the current crisis could be the development of a more data privacy and human rights compliant framework
for digital identity. However, for such a framework to thrive, two essential conditions must be met: (1) respect for and
protection of data privacy irrespective of the type of architecture or technology chosen and (2) consideration of the
broader impacts that digital identity can have on individuals’ human rights. The article draws on legal, technologyfacing, and policy-oriented academic literature to evaluate each of these conditions. It then proposes two ways to
leverage the process of digitalization strengthened by the pandemic: a data privacy-centric and a human rights-based
approach to digital identity solutions fit for post-COVID-19 societies.
