Expansion of China's health monitoring app triggers privacy fears
A Chinese city has proposed expanding the use of a health monitoring app, prompting an outcry over privacy concerns.
The proposal is taken as a sign that authorities plan to keep in place draconian surveillance measures initially installed as part of coronavirus containment efforts.
Apps already in use nationwide generate a green, yellow or red "health code" for each individual, based on a variety of criteria, including travel history and whether they have been in contact with infected people. Only people with green codes are allowed access to public places across the country, such as parks and subways.
The new programme, suggested by local authorities in Hangzhou, will collate even more personal information: individual medical history and lifestyle habits such as how many hours of sleep people get and their daily step count, as well as how much alcohol the person drinks. The collective health status of housing compounds and companies will also be scored, with the rating calculated using the average amount of sleep and physical activity of residents and employees.
Each person and company will receive a score on a scale of 0 to 100, along with a QR code on a spectrum from red to green, with a number close to 100 and a greener code considered the "healthiest". Rankings will be made public.
Chinese authorities have boasted about the country's success in curbing Covid-19 indicating that tight surveillance measures led to victory in the "people's war" against the pandemic.
While many Chinese have acquiesced to various contact tracing efforts, the latest proposal to keep them - and ramp them up - has sparked privacy concerns. Nearly 90 per cent of 7,000 poll respondents on Weibo - a Chinese social media site similar to Twitter - voted against a "single code for health".
"It is OK to do it during the epidemic period for the sake of public health, but now it's just surreal," wrote one Weibo user. "To whom do we disclose our private information?"
