Protecting privacy a precondition for digital health codes

Health codes – a Chinese innovation that are being used to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic – could become part of the nation’s ongoing disease prevention measures, which are set to persist for some time.

But as the codes are linked to personal privacy, data security must be a precondition for their use, and the government should announce data management measures to protect privacy, experts said on Thursday.

The comments came as several National People’s Congress deputies proposed to continue using the health code, which has played a vital role during the pandemic in China.

In his annual advice for the two sessions, Jiao Binlong, vice mayor of Taiyuan in Northwest China’s Shanxi Province, suggested that the health code should be used and managed at the national level.

“Since prevention measures against a pandemic resurgence will have to stay in place for a while, it is reasonable to keep the health code,” Xin Haiguang, a senior IT commentator told the Global Times on Thursday.

“However, the government should give people’s privacy top priority as the worst of the pandemic has passed, and relevant companies and government departments should strengthen data management obtain individual consent before collecting data,” he added.

“As disease prevention has become the new normal, the government should release a guideline for health code usage in normal situations with adequate supervision of data collection, and preset countermeasures in case of data leaks,” Xin added.