Belgium imposes fine on Brussels airports for checking passenger’s temperature

The Belgian privacy authority has imposed a fine upon the Brussels airports in Zaventem as well as Charleroi for checking the temperature of passengers.

The airports started screening passengers’ temperatures in 2020 in an attempt to root out individuals with coronavirus.

As per one of the statements released on Monday, the nation’s privacy authority said that the screening had violated privacy rules, imposing fine on the airports at Zaventem and Charleroi of €200,000 & €100,000.

As per the privacy authority, “despite the public health emergency, the airports had lacked to check a legal basis to check people’s temperatures, which is described as sensitive information under EU law. The authority had previously alerted that the practice might not be legal.

As per the spokesperson for Brussels Zaventem airport, “They were “very disappointed” after the authority’s decision & disputed the comments that it had no legal basis to check the data.

“Brussels Airport was very much careful with this temperature check: it was clearly advised to the passengers, the information was only clearly shown on the screen for a few seconds & was immediately taken back, these images were only seen by authorised personnel, & the data were not linked to other data.

“Brussels Airport has also carried out a comprehensive data protection impact assessment. As soon as the measures were in place, the temperature screening was phased out & finally repealed in January 2021,” the spokesperson added.