China Uses Coronavirus-Tracking App To Spy On Citizens

The Chinese government last month brought its citizens an app that is tailored for checking if they’re in “close contact” with coronavirus-infected patients throughout the country. However, it seems to be misused as a recent report from The New York Times stated that the app has likely been linked to the police via color codes every user gets involved with but unable to see them.

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Alipay, the finance service subsidiary of Alibaba, developed this system before rolling it out in over 200 cities amid the expansion of coronavirus. By scanning a QR code, people will get their own tags, including Green, Yellow, and Red. If they’re healthy, they’ll receive a Green tag and be allowed to get around an unrestricted city in China. The Yellow means they have to take a seven-day quarantine while the Red alarms you to obey a 14-day quarantine.

The New York Times discovered that these codes shared users’ personal data like locations, city name, etc… to Chinese authorities whose supposed to own an unknown server: Every time someone takes a scan of the QR code, the system will send his/her data to the server immediately. It’s believed that authorities would directly track every movement of an individual via the app, setting a new precedent even when it’s not something unfamiliar with tech companies in this country since the Chinese government drew people’s eyeballs because of its high-tech surveillance programs.

The answer to how these codes work is uncertain. Nonetheless, TechNode wrote in a report that in some cases, several members in the same isolated family received different results, raising questions over whether the app didn’t work properly.

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