Hangzhou, one of the major IT hubs in China is planning to enforce a tracking app for the citizens of the city.
The reasoning for this is the current COVID-19 pandemic, the applications is to be connected to a health and movement monitoring system. The local government has issued this proposal on behalf of the city’s health commission.
Tracking App To Be Enforced in Hangzhou midst COVID-19
The local government of Hangzhou is planning to enforce a new rule onto its citizens, a mobile tracking application, the reason for this is the current COVID-19 outbreak. The city is one of the major IT hubs, well-known for being the home of major companies such as Alibaba. The idea came from the health commission which hopes to help the virus from infecting more people. The use of the application will effectively categorize owners into different groups with color codes: red, yellow and green. Based on an analysis of the person’s movement and activities the software will create alerts. They are individual and if a potential infection is suspected they will be asked to quarantine themselves for 14 days. Every citizen will be assigned a score that ranges from 0 to 100 and will be based on the accessible data, important factors that are considered by the app include the following:
- Medical Records
- Physician Examinations and Regular Check-Ups
- Daily Movement and Activities
- Sleep Analysis
- Lifestyle Factors such as smoking
The mobile application will have to be integrated with the local government larger electronic system in order to have access to these records and to be able to store in its own collected data. Based on the obtained database records the algorithm will generate the aforementioned score and assess if this is a health risk.
This move is the next step in the creation of programs for tracking citizens. The country has been well-known for implementing such features either mandatory or voluntary. At the time of writing this article the use of facial recognition is implemented in many cities. The technology is used to fight crime as law enforcement is using it to identify potential criminals in large crowds. Over the years media has reported about the presence of a social credit system that can “rank” people based on their Internet activity – this can include emails, social media posts and etc.
App users who have received a green code will be able to freely move around Hangzhou in other cases the algorithm and authorities will decide on what precautions to take and enforce them onto the citizens.
Martin Beltov
Martin graduated with a degree in Publishing from Sofia University. As a cyber security enthusiast he enjoys writing about the latest threats and mechanisms of intrusion.
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