What does China plan to do with mountain of personal health code data amassed during zero-Covid?
- Guangdong says it has deleted all all Covid-related data collected from users of provincial health code app
- But some other regions plan to hang on to data to bolster digital governance initiatives
China’s abrupt abandonment of its stringent zero-Covid pandemic control strategy two months ago means people no longer need to scan a QR code when they enter restaurants, public transport, hospitals, office buildings or residential compounds.
But the massive amount of information collected from such scans during the almost three years the strategy was in place is still held in government-controlled databases around the country.
How local authorities will handle that mountain of personal information remains unclear, and that has prompted concerns about the protection of personal information and government accountability.
On Tuesday, Guangdong’s provincial government became the first regional administration to announce it would delete all Covid-related data collected from users of the provincial health code app.
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“We will thoroughly delete and destroy all data related to the services … to effectively safeguard the security of personal information,” a statement it posted on the health code app said, adding that, since its launch, the system had included strict technical and management measures to ensure the security of personal data.