01 view
Written by: Commentary Editing Room
2020-08-16 06:30
Last update date: 2020-08-16 06:30There are newspaper reports that the government has issued tender documents to some government IT providers and university institutions, looking for contractors to develop applications and support services, and identify close contacts in the community of people diagnosed with the new crown virus. It is planned to be launched within this month. It would be a good thing if everyone could surrender a little bit of life information to alert the surrounding community and protect the public health of Hong Kong. In order to encourage citizens to use it, the government and program developers must strengthen the assurance that messages can only be used to notify suspected patient contacts and collect the minimum amount of information.
A few countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, and Norway, believe that the government can better grasp the epidemic by using centralized tracking apps. The picture shows the tracking app launched by the Norwegian health department. (Getty Images)
New Zealand example should be referred to
Before the popularization of the vaccine, the best way to combat the spread of the new coronavirus is early detection, isolation, and diagnosis and treatment. Newspaper quoted news that the tender required the contractor to develop an "exposure notification" system and application. It was the first to encourage the installation of taxis, hospitals, nursing homes, government agencies and offices, etc., and set up a "site two-dimensional code". The public voluntarily download the program and scan the QR code before entering the premises. The mobile phone will record the location of the location by itself. When the user is diagnosed, the location can be checked from the program. After reporting to the Department of Health, the government will send the system to users who have appeared at the same time and place at the same time, calling for user testing to prevent the virus from spread community.
The report did not explain the operation of the program in detail, but if you refer to the New Zealand example, the application is downloaded and used voluntarily by citizens. Most of the right to control the provision of personal information is in the hands of the user, and the data stored on the phone will be deleted after 31 days.
Compared with global positioning and Bluetooth tracking, the amount of information recorded by the QR code of the venue is less, which will weaken the tracking function, but it is more difficult to obtain the user's complete whereabouts. Privacy concerns have been plaguing foreign countries. Even though the epidemic situation in other places is more severe than that in Hong Kong, the number of downloads of programs continues to be lower than government expectations. Hong Kong society is highly politicized. Many citizens are wary of virus testing and believe that they are more vigilant about installing mobile apps. If the society should be given greater confidence in design and technology, it will help increase the utilization rate.
The British NHS is testing a centralized tracking mobile app on the southern Isle of Wight, but it is still possible to switch to a decentralized mobile app in the face of privacy disputes. (Getty Images)
Clear explanation is especially important
The higher the usage rate, the more obvious the epidemic prevention effect. In New Zealand, the epidemic has been under control in the past few months, and the use of programs has been low. As of August 10, there were only more than 646,400 registered users, accounting for more than 10% of the country's 5 million population. The local case was reproduced in the next few days, and the program became popular. On August 14, the number of users increased to 1.17 million, and the number of scans in a day increased to nearly 700,000. Unfortunately, the source of the infection in this confirmed case is unknown, and the previous low downloads may be difficult to trace the source of the infection. Therefore, when the Hong Kong version is opened, the government must grasp the opportunity to promote it when the number of infections is low, and when the epidemic breaks out, it will lose the opportunity to track it.
For the proposed version in Hong Kong, the government and contractors should pay attention to how many steps of the program are carried out with the consent of the confirmed person, whether it will provide a privacy impact assessment, and whether it will encourage software developers to open source the code so that peers can evaluate the security of the program Degree, whether the conditions for program termination will be formulated, and how the stored data will be processed.
When the epidemic strikes, all localities implement strict social distancing responses, but this method is difficult to use for a long time. Social and economic activities must coexist with infectious diseases, and constant health records and testing will become the world's new normal. In order for citizens to be willing to put down the privacy fence, the government and technology companies must be open and honest, and they must do a better job in policy explanations so as not to be led by politicized public sentiments.
[New Coronary Pneumonia] The number of confirmed cases has fallen and society cannot be taken lightly
[New Coronary Pneumonia] Not all data on exemption from quarantine are independent
[New Coronary Pneumonia] Market has become a "epidemic time bomb"?
[New Coronary Pneumonia] The key to expanding testing is always government planning
New Coronary Pneumonia Personal Privacy 01 Viewpoint