A Māori data governance assessment of the NZ COVID Tracer app

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the NZ COVID Tracer App (NZCTA) was released as a digital intervention to support contact tracing processes in Aotearoa New Zealand. This paper examines whether NZCTA met the data governance requirements of the Indigenous Māori people. Māori are an interesting case study as they have unique Treaty and data sovereignty rights, and a higher risk of COVID-related mortality.

The NZCTA was assessed against 24 criteria drawn from the Māori Data Governance Model. The assessment drew on documentary sources and the authors’ knowledge of NZCTA and contact tracing process. Each criteria was assessed as ‘met’, ‘partially met’ or ‘not met’.

Our retrospective assessment showed a mixed performance against the Māori Data Governance Model, with NZCTA only fulfilling seven of the 24 model criteria and failing to meet nine.

There is significant room for improvement in future digital health interventions for Māori. Much work remains to be done in the Aotearoa public sector to uphold Māori data sovereignty and address systemic barriers to genuine partnership with Māori.