Coronavirus China: Surveillance fears as tracking app announced

A Chinese city’s plan to use a smartphone app to track its citizens’ health status regularly has caused fears that the government could use the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to tighten its Big-Brother state surveillance.

Hangzhou, a major city in eastern China, has proposed to use a permanent, point-based mobile programme to monitor its residents’ lifestyle, such as how much they exercise, drink or sleep.

Local officials say that the software, which would draw and share citizens’ sensitive information from their medical records, could help authorities keep tabs on the health condition of the city’s 10million people.

But news of the plan immediately sparked an outcry on various Chinese social media outlets. Some web users voiced their concerns over the safety of their data; others criticised the city’s leaders for violating their privacy and expanding state monitoring in the name of epidemic control.

Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang, was one of the first cities in China to use a state-backed app to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Pictured, a passenger wearing a mask using a smartphone to scan a health QR code before entering Tianhe Airport in Wuhan on April 11

Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang, was one of the first cities in China to use a state-backed, color-coded app to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Since mid-February, the city has required all of its citizens to use their smartphones to scan designated QR codes to prove that they don’t have the novel coronavirus before they could enter public places or use public transport. 

The city’s government last week said that they wanted to bring the health-control method into more extensive and regular use.

According to a plan issued by the Hangzhou Municipal Health Commission, each Hangzhou resident will be issued a colour card spanning from purple to green. Solid purple means zero points or poor health, while solid green means 100 points or good health. 

Citizens will be encouraged to stay in the ‘green zone’, and the ‘greener’ their app shows the healthier they are, the scheme proposes.

Officials say they also intend to review and give scores to residential complexes, neighbourhood and companies based on the colour codes of their residents and employees.

According to a plan issued by the Hangzhou Municipal Health Commission, each Hangzhou resident will be issued a colour card spanning from purple to green. Citizens will be encouraged to stay in the 'green zone', and the 'greener' their app shows the healthier they are

According to a plan issued by the Hangzhou Municipal Health Commission, each Hangzhou resident will be issued a colour card spanning from purple to green. Citizens will be encouraged to stay in the ‘green zone’, and the ‘greener’ their app shows the healthier they are

This file photo taken on May 2, 2020 shows people wearing face masks as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus as they use a phone app to scan a code required to prove their health and travel status before being allowed to enter a shopping mall in Beijing

This file photo taken on May 2, 2020 shows people wearing face masks as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus as they use a phone app to scan a code required to prove their health and travel status before being allowed to enter a shopping mall in Beijing

Over the weekend, thousands of Chinese social media users protested against the proposed scheme.

One typical comment read: ‘I oppose. What about our rights to privacy?’

Another person condemned: ‘Does (the government) need to monitor if I exercise every day, drink alcohol or not and how many hours I sleep?’

Some people compared the initiative to the plot of Black Mirror, a British dystopian TV series.

Writing on Pincong, a Chinese forum with a focus on censored topics, one critic said that the proposed app reminded him of several science fiction productions, such as ‘I, Robot’, ‘Blade Runner’, ‘Westworld’ and ‘Black Mirror’.

‘All of these productions which describe a future society give people nightmares,’ wrote the internet user in a blog titled ‘Can I be scared?’

Since mid-February, Hangzhou has required citizens to use their phones to prove they don't have coronavirus. Pictured, passengers wait in the Hangzhou east railway station on May 5

Since mid-February, Hangzhou has required citizens to use their phones to prove they don’t have coronavirus. Pictured, passengers wait in the Hangzhou east railway station on May 5

Authoritative figures also blasted the idea. Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of Beijing’s state-run Global Times, urged the Hangzhou government to take into consideration the privacy of its citizens.

The editor said: ‘Health codes should be regularised to control and prevent the novel coronavirus. It should not be expanded to be a regular method of comprehensive urban management.’

Hu made the comments on Zhihu, the Chinese equivalent to Quora. 

China has faced widespread doubts and criticism over its use of artificial intelligence to monitor its citizens during the pandemic.

It was revealed earlier this month that Chinese officials installed security cameras right outside people’s homes to prevent a second wave.

Expats in home isolation in Beijing said the government had mounted monitors pointed directly at their front doors to ensure they didn’t step out.

The picture shows a surveillance camera mounted on the wall outside the home of a journalist placed under quarantine at his Beijing home on May 3 after he had visited Wuhan. China is stepping up its 'big-brother' state surveillance to prevent a second wave of coronavirus cases

The picture shows a surveillance camera mounted on the wall outside the home of a journalist placed under quarantine at his Beijing home on May 3 after he had visited Wuhan. China is stepping up its ‘big-brother’ state surveillance to prevent a second wave of coronavirus cases

A worker is pictured adjusting a surveillance camera outside the home of a journalist placed under quarantine after he had visited Wuhan in Beijing on May 3. Such security cameras are set up 'purely for the needs of counter-epidemic works', according to The Global Times

A worker is pictured adjusting a surveillance camera outside the home of a journalist placed under quarantine after he had visited Wuhan in Beijing on May 3. Such security cameras are set up ‘purely for the needs of counter-epidemic works’, according to The Global Times

Security guards, building cleaners and neighbours have allegedly been told to keep close watch of those in quarantine.

Security analyst Paul Bischoff, who has penned a report about the world’s most-monitored cities, believes that China has taken advantage of the health crisis to speed up the implementation of state surveillance. 

Mr Bischoff told MailOnline: ‘This is the exact sort of surveillance creep that privacy advocates have warned against since contact tracing apps were first introduced. 

‘There was always a risk that contact tracing apps would be used beyond their intended purpose, particularly for surveillance. It’s not hard to imagine authorities taking advantage of access to contact tracing data and using it to restrict freedom of movement and assembly. 

‘Whether this actually happens or not, even having the capability to monitor users will cause them to act differently, creating a chilling effect on those freedoms.’

Officials have used various surveillance methods, including increasing location tracking via people’s phones and boosting the use of face recognition in public places, during the pandemic, according to Mr Bischoff.

Security personnel work a check point in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province. Life in China post-coronavirus outbreak is ruled by a green symbol on a smartphone screen

Security personnel work a check point in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province. Life in China post-coronavirus outbreak is ruled by a green symbol on a smartphone screen

China has been building a mass surveillance network, which boasts hundreds of millions of street cameras.

The surveillance network has been billed as the world’s most powerful facial-recognition system and aims to identify any of its 1.4 billion citizens within three seconds.

The country’s residents are due to be carefully watched by 626 million street monitors, or one camera for nearly every two people, as early as this year, according to a study.

China has five most-monitored cities in the world. Its most-surveilled city, Chongqing, is equipped with more than 2.5 million street cameras, or one for every six people.

Critics have cautioned over the scheme. Many have compared it to a dystopian system run by a fictional state leader, Big Brother, in George Orwell’s novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’. 

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