Abstract

The recourse, made by Italy, to contact tracing apps in order to counter the outbreak of the Covid- 19 virus is part of similar experiences which have been already tested, with various results, in different States. Despite the considerable variety of solutions adopted, these contact tracing systems raise different legal issues: protection of personal data, right to health, freedom of movement etc. All these factors require a delicate balance: on the one hand, it is necessary to compress the protection of personal data and, on the other, it is needed to make sure that these limitations are necessary and proportional to the concrete benefits that the app is able to produce on the ground of the contrast to the epidemic. The essay, after conducting an excursus on the origins of the Italian app “Immuniµ (section 2) and on the guidelines developed by the European Union in this regard (section 3), focuses on the possible contact tracing options and on the one which has been finally selected by the Italian Government (sections 4-9). After analysing the legal basis of the latter (sections 10 and 11), the paper assesses the compliance of the above system with the obligations set by the international norms (section 12). Finally, it develops some observations on the merits (section 13), the critical aspects (section 14), and the grey areas emerging from the effort to strike a fair balance between the competing interests at stake (section 15).