Top News: Expats in China hail QR health code
China’s use of high technologies like big data to track coronavirus-related information is the country’s responsibility and efforts to combat the coronavirus, which is no excuse for privacy accusations by overseas media, a tech industry expert told the Global Times Friday.
Starting March 1, the Shanghai QR health code has allowed expats to make health declarations based on factors such as travel history and relationships to potential carriers of the coronavirus. Expats and people from Hong Kong, Macao and island of Taiwan can obtain the health code after registering in the app of Alipay.
On February 11, Hangzhou government in Zhejiang Province launched a QR health code, accessible via various platforms including Alipay, WeChat, with three categories – green, yellow and red. Residents with a green code can move freely, while yellow and red means the person should remain in quarantine.
Mark Nashan from Germany, who works at an international insurance company in Shanghai, registered his “green code” and understood that the health code is useful at this time.
“We already have imported case in Shanghai. You may want to know who is dangerous when you are jammed in the subway,” Mark told the Global Times on Friday.
Although some people might have privacy concerns, he said it is OK for him. “Just to record my health condition, I don’t mind. I always thought the Shanghai city government was very efficient.”
The software is not for collecting information, but can help identify and authenticate personnel information based on big data, so that it could track citizen’s coronavirus-related information, Li Yi, chief researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences’ internet research center, told the Global Times on Friday.
Also, the system is used during a special period to combat the coronavirus, which will not last long, Li added.
There’s no need for privacy concerns, tech industrial expert Liu Dingding noted, adding that the law of personal information protection and data security has been well established in the country. He said that foreign media would always use privacy security as an alibi to attack Chinese internet services whenever there is an innovation by Chinese companies and institutions. The QR health code is used in more than 200 cities in China, according to Ant Financial of the Alibaba Group.
After users report their coronavirus information, they will receive a personal QR code which is generated by background systems run by local governments after an automatic audit.