From Beijing to Jerusalem to Hyderabad, India, and Perth, Australia, The Associated Press has found that authorities used these technologies and data to halt travel for activists and ordinary people, harass marginalized communities and link people's health information to other surveillance and law enforcement tools. Data was shared with spy agencies in some cases. Nearly three years into the pandemic, China's ultra-strict zero-COVID policies have sparked the sharpest public rebuke of the country's authoritarian leadership since the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests.

Majd Ramlawi was serving coffee in Jerusalem's Old City when a chilling text message appeared on his phone.

“You have been spotted as having participated in acts of violence in the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” it read in Arabic. “We will hold you accountable.”

Ramlawi, then 19, was among hundreds of people who civil rights attorneys estimate received the text last year, at the height of one of the Holy Land's most turbulent periods. Many people, including Ramlawi, claim they only lived or worked in the area and had nothing to do with the unrest. What he didn't realize was that the feared internal security agency, the Shin Bet, was using coronavirus contact tracing technology against Israeli residents and citizens for purposes unrelated to COVID-19.

In the pandemic's bewildering early days, millions worldwide believed government officials who said they needed confidential data for new tech tools that could help stop coronavirus' spread. In return, governments got a firehose of individuals' private health details, photographs that captured their facial measurements and their home addresses.

Citizens in China, the world's last major country to impose strict COVID-19 lockdowns, have been required to install cell-phone apps in order to move freely in most cities. The apps generate individual QR codes based on telecommunications data and PCR test results that change from green to yellow or red depending on a person's health status.

The apps and lockdowns are part of China's broad pandemic prevention policies, which have strained public trust. When an apartment fire in Urumqi killed at least ten people last month, many blamed zero-tolerance COVID policies.

This sparked nationwide protests, the largest in decades, after which the government announced that it would only check health codes in "special places," such as schools, hospitals, and nursing homes.

The government went even further last week, announcing the suspension of a national-level health code in order to facilitate cross-provincial travel. However, cities and provinces have their own codes, which have historically been more prevalent. Last week in Beijing, restaurants, offices, hotels, and gyms still required local codes for entry.

In recent years, Chinese citizens have required a green code to board domestic flights or trains, and in some cities, even to enter a supermarket or board a bus. If they were discovered to have had close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, or if the government imposed a local quarantine, the code turned red, and they were forced to stay at home.

There is evidence that the health codes were used to suppress dissent.
Source: AP News