HANGZHOU: As China encourages people to return to work despite the coronavirus outbreak, it has begun a bold mass experiment in using data to regulate citizens’ lives — by requiring them to use software on their smartphones that dictates whether they should be quarantined or be allowed into subways, malls and other public spaces.
But an NYT analysis of the software’s code found that the system does more than decide in real time whether someone poses a contagion risk. It also appears to share information with police, setting a template for new forms of automated social control that could persist after the epidemic subsides.
The Alipay Health Code was first introduced in the city of Hangzhou — a project by the local government with the help of Ant Financial, a sister company of the e-commerce giant Alibaba.
People sign up through Ant’s wallet app, Alipay, and are assigned a colour code — green, yellow or red — that indicates their health status. The system is already in use in 200 cities and is being rolled out nationwide, Ant says.
Neither Chinese officials nor the company has explained how the system classifies people. That has caused fear among those who are ordered to isolate themselves and have no idea why. The analysis found that as soon as a user grants the software access to personal data, a piece of the programme sends the person’s location, city name and an identifying code number to a server. The software does not make clear to users its connection to the police. According to the state-run Xinhua and an official police social media account, law enforcement authorities were a crucial partner in the system’s development.
Ant Financial’s general counsel, Leiming Chen, said that Ant required all third-party developers, including those offering health code services, to adhere to its data security and privacy requirements, which include obtaining user consent before providing services. The Alipay Health Code’s creators say it uses big data to draw automated conclusions about whether someone is a contagion risk.
But an NYT analysis of the software’s code found that the system does more than decide in real time whether someone poses a contagion risk. It also appears to share information with police, setting a template for new forms of automated social control that could persist after the epidemic subsides.
The Alipay Health Code was first introduced in the city of Hangzhou — a project by the local government with the help of Ant Financial, a sister company of the e-commerce giant Alibaba.
People sign up through Ant’s wallet app, Alipay, and are assigned a colour code — green, yellow or red — that indicates their health status. The system is already in use in 200 cities and is being rolled out nationwide, Ant says.
Neither Chinese officials nor the company has explained how the system classifies people. That has caused fear among those who are ordered to isolate themselves and have no idea why. The analysis found that as soon as a user grants the software access to personal data, a piece of the programme sends the person’s location, city name and an identifying code number to a server. The software does not make clear to users its connection to the police. According to the state-run Xinhua and an official police social media account, law enforcement authorities were a crucial partner in the system’s development.
Ant Financial’s general counsel, Leiming Chen, said that Ant required all third-party developers, including those offering health code services, to adhere to its data security and privacy requirements, which include obtaining user consent before providing services. The Alipay Health Code’s creators say it uses big data to draw automated conclusions about whether someone is a contagion risk.
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