Digital rights legal fund targets Covid-19 violations with grants

A man shows the contact tracing app Stayaway Covid on his cellphone, in Lisbon. DFF granted legal aid to Civil Liberties Union for Europe, a network of civil liberties NGOs, to file suits over the excessive use of tracking apps in countries including Bulgaria, Poland and Italy. — AP

AMSTERDAM: As governments embrace tracing apps to stem the spread of Covid-19, a Dutch-based organisation announced grants this week to fight alleged violations of digital rights during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Digital Freedom Fund (DFF), which warned that measures to contain the virus were increasingly infringing on privacy and other basic rights, said it would allocate legal funding to four cases involving European governments and companies.