[D66] How China is using QR code apps to contain Covid-19

[Antid Oto]

  How China is using QR code apps to contain Covid-19

By
Nicole Jao
technode.com
10 min
View Original 
<https://getpocket.com/redirect?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechnode.com%2F2020%2F02%2F25%2Fhow-china-is-using-qr-code-apps-to-contain-covid-19%2F>

9 min read

/This article was co-authored by David Cohen 
<https://technode.com/author/david-cohen/> and Chris Udemans 
<https://technode.com/author/chrisudemans/>./

As China goes back to work after weeks of epidemic lockdown, it’s 
betting on high-tech QR code quarantines to keep the virus from spreading.

In Hangzhou, scanning an Alibaba ID code has become a routine part of 
daily life, essentially a health passport for the city. A mini-app 
embedded in Alipay or WeChat rates people as red, yellow, or green 
risks. To enter an apartment complex or a market, residents must scan a 
QR code at a manned checkpoint, letting the system know where they are 
and producing a one-time color code pass to show the guard.

Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, became the first to adopt 
the QR code system on Feb. 11, although lockdown continued for most 
residents until Feb. 15. Alipay announced 
<https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/amB7fBxLw8KSR9DcUsbTWg> on Feb. 16 that it 
was ramping up development support for a national health code system 
that assesses individuals for self-quarantine based on basic health 
information and travel history, which it is preparing to launch this 
week under the guidance of the State Council, China’s cabinet.

By Feb. 20, Alipay boasted that platforms it had helped develop were 
already in use 
<https://technode.com/2020/02/20/health-rating-system-deployed-in-over-100-cities-alipay/> 
in over 100 cities, including all cities in Zhejiang, Sichuan, and 
Hainan, as well as Chongqing.

    According to our observations, there is no place that enforces the
    health passport system as rigorously as in Zhejiang.

But national implementation doesn’t mean a unified national 
system—instead, each participating city is launching a local version of 
the system, creating a fragmented landscape resembling local social 
credit system <https://technode.com/2018/10/23/china-social-credit/> 
pilots. Some have versions of Alipay’s system, some have local apps—and 
others have both. While online tracking ended Hangzhou’s total lockdown, 
many other cities have not revised quarantine rules to reflect new 
online systems.


    How QR code systems work

As of Feb. 25, sources on the ground described very limited 
implementation outside Alipay’s home province of Zhejiang, ranging from 
paper-based lockdown in Shanghai to laxly enforced digital checkpoints 
in Shenzhen. Talking to locals in cities that have adopted health 
passport systems, TechNode saw its limits: the app alone does nothing 
without human-based enforcement and public compliance, and few cities 
outside Zhejiang have overcome these human challenges.

The system shows both how much is possible with high-tech 
surveillance—and how much human input is required to make such systems work.

To register, individuals provide their name, ID number, phone number. 
The health-rating platform, asks a series of questions, including 
physical health condition and whether the individual has traveled to 
virus-hit areas or has come into contact with infected cases, to produce 
an initial rating. These ratings are reported to change, likely informed 
by where the user has checked in and new reports of infections.

According to Hangzhou rules 
<https://www.hotbak.net/key/%E6%9D%AD%E5%B7%9E%E5%81%A5%E5%BA%B7%E7%A0%81%E4%B8%8A%E7%BA%BF%E7%BA%A2%E9%BB%84%E7%BB%BF%E4%B8%89%E7%A0%81%E9%9A%94%E7%A6%BB%E8%A6%81%E6%B1%82%E6%9C%89%E4%BB%80%E4%B9%88%E4%B8%8D%E5%90%8C%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%E7%94%B3%E9%A2%86.html>, 
residents with a green code are allowed to move around the city freely. 
Yellow means a seven-day quarantine is required, and red requires a 
14-day quarantine. Some versions adopt a slightly different color-coding 
system, but the general idea is the same—to track mobility and regulate 
it based on risk assessments. Though the questionnaires record 
self-reported information, public data is used for verification purposes.

Internet users have questioned the way the system analyzes health and 
travel data. In numerous accounts on microblogging platform Weibo, 
netizens said people living in the same household were given different 
color codes even though they had been isolated together for weeks.

Others have expressed frustration with unpredictability, saying they 
were initially given a green code only to have it change to red after a 
few days. The colors are dynamic, and some people taking what they 
believe to be adequate measures to protect themselves while outdoors 
have had their mobility limited after their code changed color.

While Alipay’s version is associated with a State Council project, local 
governments are not required to adopt it. WeChat operator Tencent is 
working with the State Information Center to develop similar QR 
code-passed health passports.

Tencent’s version, called “Tencent Healthcare Code,” is already 
available in provinces including Guangdong, Sichuan, and Yunnan.

While the system has the potential to bring a semblance of normal life 
back to places that have been locked down for weeks due to the outbreak, 
to create a surveillance system capable of tracking 1.4 billion people 
everywhere they go comes at great challenges and costs.


    To enter market, scan QR code

Uny Cao, a resident of Hangzhou, says that he scans twice a day—once 
when he goes to the vegetable market, and once when he returns home. 
Getting on the subway, riding a bus, or going to a park would mean more 
scans, so he’s chosen to limit these behaviors. Many also avoid 
borrowing share bikes, reasoning that the apps may share data with the 
Health Code:

“A few days ago, they found a new case in City North. Rumor spread that 
if you have rented a shared bike in that region, your code might get a 
downgrade,” he said. “So for those few days, I avoided renting shared 
bikes, in case they discover a new patient in my area.”

According to our observations, there is no place that enforces the 
health passport system as rigorously as in Zhejiang.

Regular scans both track and shape behavior. Sources told TechNode that 
citizens are required to show their code to be scanned when entering 
supermarkets and residential areas as well as getting on the subway and 
buses.

For Hangzhou residents, the inconveniences are a small price for 
something like normal life—for the ten days before the app launched, the 
city was forced to stay indoors except for short trips to buy food every 
other day. Since the code system came in, residents have been allowed to 
leave their homes and even to drive to other cities.

Even here, enthusiasm has its limits: While apartment buildings and food 
markets appear to be rigorously enforcing the rules, TechNode 
correspondents have walked into banks past napping checkpoint guards. 
Restaurants and smaller shops are starting to re-open without check-in 
systems.

The Hangzhou version of the mini-app, which the national version will 
reportedly be based on, allows non-Hangzhou residents and foreigners to 
register. Other places such as Shanghai and Shenzhen’s platform only 
allows residents to apply for a pass.

The Hangzhou health passport works for long-distance travel. When a 
TechNode correspondent traveled from Shanghai to Hangzhou, train station 
staff checked travelers’ health codes and wrote down their ID numbers. 
Travelers who had applied for codes outside of Hangzhou had no problems 
entering the city.


    Mileage may vary

Beyond Hangzhou, enforcement can be more lax. In Jinhua, a city in 
Zhejiang 180 kilometers south of Hangzhou, a 25-year-old city resident 
told TechNode that she only needs to use the system when taking public 
transport. Her local supermarkets and residential community do not check 
the color of her QR code when she leaves her apartment. The system is 
enforced more stringently for out-of-towners, she said.

In a rural area, quarantine guards suggested a TechNode correspondent 
write down an ID number on a piece of paper to save time registering 
with a local version of the color codes mini-app.

But other cities can enforce non-app limits far more strictly, 
suggesting that they do not fully trust the app: A resident in the 
eastern Chinese city of Ningbo says there are checkpoints set up at 
community complexes and supermarkets. People are being asked to show, 
but not scan, their QR code at public places. On top of enforcing the 
new health code system at the community level, the previous lockdown 
rules still apply, the Ningbo resident said. In her apartment compound, 
residents are required to show the QR code at the entrance of the 
complex and still adhere to the rule that every household can only send 
one person out every two days.

The source also said her relative purposely left out the fact that he 
just came back from Wuhan when filling out the questionnaire. The police 
called days later and ask why he didn’t report it. They found the 
license plate under his name had been in Wuhan recently.

For people that have returned to their work, they have to show the QR 
code when leaving the apartment complex and also show a document from 
their employer that permits them to return to work.


    Active but unused

TechNode sources described health passport systems that were implemented 
either spottily or not at all. In some places, including Shanghai, 
Beijing, and central China’s Hubei, the worst-hit province in the 
country, apps were superseded by strict offline measures; in others, 
such as Guangdong, quarantine appears to be lax.

More than a week after launching a track-everything health code system, 
Shanghai is still very much relying on paper records to enforce a 14-day 
quarantine on all new arrivals. Shanghai launched health passports as a 
new feature within its pre-existing “Health Cloud” mini-app on Feb. 17, 
accessible on Alipay and WeChat. But TechNode correspondents could not 
find a place to scan the app inside the city, finding checkpoints at 
office buildings and apartment complexes relying on paper records and 
paper cards or stickers to identify approved residents or workers.

In Shenzhen, the headquarter of internet giant Tencent, sources say that 
the health code system has been mostly ignored as the city hurries to 
get back to work.

Henk Werner, head of Shenzhen-based hardware incubator Trouble Maker, 
told TechNode that he and his friends had not bothered to register for 
the local version unless they wanted to take the subway. Residents are 
being asked to show QR codes at places like the parking lot of an 
apartment complex, but found it possible to bypass the checkpoint. 
Another source in Shenzhen says she hasn’t bothered to register—and that 
she’s going to work by taxi every day with a paper pass.

The central city of Xi’an has used a more limited pass system that 
requires scan check-ins but does not display a color code for about a 
week. Graduate student Liu Weiqi and TechNode editor Wang Boyuan both 
described checkpoints at the entrances to apartment compounds, but saw 
mixed use of the app. While Wang saw people using the app to enter his 
apartment compound, Liu made a trip to the market by bus on Feb. 25, and 
found that in practice he was registered on paper records everywhere but 
the market. On Feb. 25, the city announced that it is adopting a version 
of Alipay’s color code-based pass app.

A source in Chengdu said even though the city implemented a health 
passport on Feb. 21, it’s not enforced. Residents can go out without 
being asked to show the code. She said it’s probably because the area 
she lives in is mostly locals rather than out-of-towners, who are seen 
as being a higher risk.

At the epicenter of the outbreak, attempts to roll out the health check 
system have also had limited effect, simply because no one is going out 
to be checked. Earlier this week Wuhan, the city at the epicenter of the 
Covid-19 outbreak, launched 
<http://finance.eastmoney.com/a/202002241394778454.html> a Tencent 
version of the health passport. The local government now recommends 
residents who need to leave their apartment complex for valid reasons to 
apply for the pass.

Wu Chuan, a 26-year-old resident of Yichang, a city in Hubei that is 
approximately a four-hour drive from Wuhan, told TechNode he hasn’t 
stepped out of his home for close to a month and wasn’t aware of any 
health passport platform in Hubei.

The city has a strictly enforced health-reporting system that requires 
citizens to fill out an application if they plan to leave the community 
complex. Without official approval, they’re forbidden to do so. Wu said 
the health passport system does not seem to have much use in his city 
because, unlike Hangzhou and other metropoles that actually allow people 
out and go about their usual activities, it is still under lockdown.

Suizhou, a city 180 kilometers northeast of Wuhan, has also begun 
implementing a health passport system. People with green codes will need 
to have their temperatures checked before being allowed through 
checkpoints. Those with yellow and red codes will not be permitted to 
pass. The system is not yet mandatory and a resident of the city told 
TechNode that she is still not allowed to leave her residential community.


    Big data, huge payroll

It is unclear whether the implementation will improve after the launch 
of the national version of the health code this week. Although it is a 
standardized system across the country, according to Alipay, local 
governments have the liberty to decide whether they want to adopt the 
version of not.

In order for the system to work, cities need to deploy checkpoints on 
highways and roads, on public transportation, and apartment 
complexes—which requires tremendous manpower to operate. Then they need 
to supervise these guards closely enough to make sure they do the work.

Hangzhou under the watchful of eye an app shows us what an extreme 
version of mass surveillance might look like. But it also shows how far 
we are from that world—it takes a lot more than the click of a button to 
know where people are.


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