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China tracking and scoring citizens code#
Additionally, to rent a car or hotel room requires a bar code scan. Most locations in Hangzhou require a bar code scan before one can enter. Her status was eventually changed, but while her health code was yellow, she could not go to the grocery store or public areas. She contested her status on account that she has chronic rhinitis. One woman reported congestion, resulting in her status changing to yellow. The algorithm’s parameters for deciding on quarantine are not immediately clear but the health data goes directly to the police. A red light means a probable case of COVID-19, requiring quarantine for fourteen days. A yellow light means a moderate risk, and the person must quarantine for seven days. That color determines whether the user is allowed to leave home or not.Ī person is not at risk of having COVID-19 gets a green light and can go places. Once the information is processed through an algorithm, the risk of COVID-19 is indicated by a green, yellow, or red light QR code.

It also prompts users to input health data, such as symptoms and temperature. The app tracks users’ movements using their cell phone GPS. In Hangzhou, government officials went door to door to check if everyone in a particular household had the app. Residents of some provinces needed it to go to the grocery store or move around the city, even after their area had no more coronavirus cases.
China tracking and scoring citizens download#
In an effort to track people with coronavirus, in February, Chinese banking app Alipay launched a health code app (Alipay Health Code) in Hangzhou, a tech hub in the Zhejiang province, as a way to track people potentially infected with COVID-19.Īlthough the app is ostensibly voluntary, at the height of the pandemic, people in all parts of China were strongly encouraged to download it. Cate Cadell, “ China’s Coronavirus Surveillance Campaign Offers Glimpse into Surveillance System” at Reuters (May 26, 2020) “This type of surveillance is far more human driven than it is tech driven, said James Leibold, associate Professor at Australia’s La Trobe University, who researched similar systems in China’s far-west Xinjiang. Known as “grid members”, they sit in monitoring rooms or squint over smart-phone feeds from the networks of cameras. It was able to enforce a strict lockdown of several locations in Southeast China via the massive surveillance system:ĭespite the hi-tech ambitions of the system, it is heavily dependent on a lot of people watching footage on screens. While the Chinese government may have botched its response to the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan in November (or perhaps as early as August), it was quick to censor and surveil citizens in an effort to control the spread of information about the virus. Lin Yijiang, “ China’s Health Codes Increase Population Surveillance” at Bitter Winter (June 7, 2020)

The state can also impose stricter control as people now have to use health codes going to work, getting into a taxi, seeing a doctor, shopping, or doing many other daily activities.
China tracking and scoring citizens software#
Now, China is looking to fill those gaps by keeping the Alipay Health Code app, launched at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as a mainstay for its citizens:Ĭompared to omnipresent facial recognition software and other surveillance systems in China, the health code mechanism covers more people and collects a broader range of personal information. People could avoid recognition, for example, by wearing a face covering to curb the spread of a respiratory illness. The current extensive network of facial recognition cameras has left some gaps. Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Flipboard Print arroba Emailįor the Chinese Communist Party, SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus) has provided an opportunity to expand its massive surveillance system.
