Wuhan, China, where the first reported cases of novel coronavirus emerged ten weeks ago, reopened its borders last week. There’s just one catch: A government surveillance app is required to enter and exit the region.
The Chinese government has begun to track some of its citizens through software that analyzes their personal data to sort individuals into color-coded categories – red, yellow or green – corresponding to their health status and level of risk for COVID-19.
The app has helped the government relax lockdown measures across the country in an attempt to reopen their economy, but concerns are rising about whether this temporary measure will become a permanent fixture. And the move has alarmed leading international human rights advocates, who fear that the government is merely using the ongoing public health crisis as a “convenient justification” to expand monitoring of its population.
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“This is viewed as scary stuff from a human rights perspective,” Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, told ABC News. “[It is] yet another way to gather information about people to potentially use it against them in ways which there's no legal basis.”
Individuals throughout the country, including several ABC News reporters based in China, were required to register for a QR code through WeChat, a mobile messaging app, or AliPay, a mobile wallet.
Users are first prompted to enter personal information, including their Chinese ID number, phone number, residential address, their place of work and where, when and how one entered the region, as well as the address of where they’re staying locally, and the purpose of their trip.
Next, a series of health-related questions: Do you currently have any symptoms for COVID-19? Have you been in close contact with a COVID-19 carrier?
Based on their responses, the app generates a color code. QR scans are required upon entry or exit from certain regions, as well as to enter some apartment buildings, workplaces, transit systems and other public destinations.
An individual with ‘green’ health status – at the lowest risk for carrying the deadly virus – are afforded the least amount of restrictions in their movement. ‘Yellow’ or ‘Red’? Not so fast.