Chinese Officials Are Weaponizing COVID Health Tracker to Block Protests Would-be protesters saw their health codes turn red and were forced into quarantine. by Rachel Cheung June 17, 2022, 8:31am
Chinese bank depositors planning a protest about their frozen funds saw their health code mysteriously turn red and were stopped from traveling to the site of a rally, confirming fears that China’s vast COVID-tracking system could be weaponized as a powerful tool to stifle dissent. A red health code designated the would-be protesters as suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients, limiting their movement and access to public transportation. Their rallies in the central Henan province this week were thwarted as some were forced into quarantine and others detained by police. < - > The apparent abuse of health code is made possible in part because the system gathers real-time cellular and location data, giving Chinese authorities granular and identifiable data on citizens’ movement, in addition to their travel and contact history, as well as medical information such as body temperature. This is unlike contract tracing apps used in Europe, New Zealand, and Singapore, which use short-range technologies such as Bluetooth to alert users who have been in proximity to an infected person and anonymize the collected data. < - > https://www.vice.com/en/article/93a53v/china-covid-health-code-protest-henan -- Iw mailing list [email protected] http://sticklist.org/mailman/listinfo/iw_sticklist.org
