#Analysis #HealthCode #MassSurveillance
Health Code is worse than National Security Law

Part 1/4

The National Security Law is at its best a totalitarian tool to suppress people’s freedom, but Health Code can strip away your freedom, privacy and from then on, everyone in the society will live in a scrupulous, and technology-empowered totalitarian surveillance.

Author of The Great History of Mankind, Yucal Noah Harari once said, 50 years ago, the Committee for State Security for the former Soviet Union was the world’s most efficient intelligence agency. Despite of its wide-ranged intelligence network, it still could not track down a population of 240 million every day, not to mention effectively processing the information collected. However, with ubiquitous monitoring codes and AI analytics in place, the old totalitarian’s dream could be easily fulfilled.

Health Code is the breakthrough tool.

The Health Code that we are discussing has been implemented in China's Huang Zhou as early as March 2020, which was soon rolled out to cover the rest of the cities in China. The code collects your name, your ID number, contact number and recent activities in great detail. Based on which, a two-dimensional code in either Green, Yellow and Red will be generated. A green code means one can carry out the desired activities without restriction, while a yellow code means a 7-days home quarantine is required and a red code means longer quarantine period for 14-days.

In China, the display of this Health Code is made mandatory for entrance of any public places, including riding on public transportation. Without it, one will lose his/her freedom in daily routine.

The same thing is coming to Hong Kong as pro-Beijing lawmaker Lam Kin-fung has been advocating for “wearing a Health Code in public place such like shopping malls and eateries.”

In other words, without wearing a health code, you are not allowed to enter shopping mall, eateries and even ride a bus.

To be continued
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24316

Source: 書生百用 #Aug13

#SocialCreditSystem #BigData #Privacy #CCP #YucalNoahHarari #SovietUnion

#Analysis #HealthCode #MassSurveillance
Health Code is worse than National Security Law

Part 2/4

Continue from Part 1:
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24292

Do not envisage that you would be alright by staying healthy.

According to international media, including WIRED, Financial Times, and New York Times, many Chinese, while being 100% healthy, their Health Codes, however, showed yellow or even red color, which forced them to live in isolation, shutting from the outside world.

Even worse, the aglorithm of health code has never been transparent, nor has it been disclosed to public. Even the person concerned does not know why his/her Health Code appears to be red, and the reasons why it has switched to green. Since there is no complaint mechanism in place, it could be a dreadfully vulnerable experience when being grounded for a prolonged period of time because of a color shown on the health code.

You would never know how Health Code defines “healthy”. If you raise this question to the government, likely that you would be told it is result of AI Big Data Analytics. They claim that “it is completely reliable, but unable to disclose further details”. Even if the government is disclosing some of the details, it remains unknown whether any unspoken rules has been imposed.

Financial Times once reported that Health Code of a journalist was switched to yellow for unknown reason, such that he could not leave the hotel room to conduct interview. Even after going through virus test and a 14-day quarantine period which has proven him healthy, his Health Code continued to show yellow. He was asked to stay home in isolation. The journalist being “imprisoned” described it a dire experience of data purgatory.”

Even if Health Code is effective in epidemic prevention, a democratic and free society would resist it as the code will overturn the whole city’s order of life, pushing it towards totalitarianism.

To be continued

Source: 書生百用 #Aug13

#SocialCreditSystem #BigData #Privacy #CCP

#Analysis #HealthCode #MassSurveillance
Health Code is worse than National Security Law

Part 3/4

Today, the government is still talking about privacy protection, however no one knows where one’s personal data will eventually be passed to.

A report on New York Times revealed that in China users' personal data were dispatched to Police Department. When anyone presenting his/her Health Code, the person’s location, personal details, and past activities could all be sent to the police server in one go. Regarding this, the Health Code application has never informed its users.

In other words, whether you have visited some pro-democracy shops, your daily routine, shops and places most frequented, people you have dined with and spoke to, all personal social activities could be blatantly examined and analyzed by data analytics, and these data could also be shared with the police one day.

Other than that, most people might have overlooked that the execution of Health Code could only be realised by hardened administrative grip and tougher policing efforts.

For instance, when carrying a red health code, you will be rejected from entering shopping centers, taken back home or even being arrested by “enforcement personnels”.

The whole world in fact, is concerned about growing public power amidst pandemic prevention, which in its "exceptional state", would be normalized as routine social order even in post-pandemic era.

A mega survelliance system that the totalitarian government failed to impose 50 years ago would now become true.

Source: 書生百用 #Aug13

#SocialCreditSystem #BigData #Privacy #CCP #BlackMirror

#HealthCode #SocialCreditSystem #MassSurveillance
Health experts slam Health Code in public places unnecessary

In Hong Kong, Beijing loyalists have been urging the government to launch a Health Code system to monitor entrance of eateries and shopping malls, several experts rebuked, calling it a fallacy of concept.

In a radio interview on August 14, Professor David Hui Shu-Cheong, Chairman of the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics in Chinese University of Hong Kong (#CUHK), expressed that although the #COVID19 coronavirus continued to spread in Hong Kong with tens of cases confirmed every day, and some sources of these cases remained unknown, launching a Health Code in public places at this moment is unnecessary.

He blatantly called such recommendation a distortion of concept. Hui pointed out that Health Code is only a short-term measure to screen out carriers of coronavirus at the border, so that border control can be relaxed once when the outbreak is put under control.

It is neither an effective means to boost consumption nor a tool to save local economy. Hui clarified that the expert team on epidemic prevention, in which he is a member, has never discussed this issue in their meetings with the government.

Hui also expressed that testing period for Health Code has been continually shortened from every 14 days to 7 day, 3 days and most recently to every day for cross-border drivers in China, showing that usage of Health Code is not for local population, but a temporary arrangement for cross-border communication.

Dr Joseph Tseng Kay Yan, a specialist in Infectious Disease said in another radio program that Health Code might give citizens a wrong impression that having a clean Health Code pass, they are free to “go everywhere” .

Source: RTHK; Apple Daily #Aug14 #WuhanPneumonia #FailedState #TotalitarianRegime #BigData #PersonalPrivacy #DavidHui

#OpinionArticle #HealthCode #MassSurveillance #SocialCreditSystem
Making Health Code Permanent: Authorities' Plan to Mass Surveillance and Chines Communist Party's Goal to Control

Part 1/2

Source: 作者 #Aug9

Graphic:
http://myblogs.asia/view2/69340/

#FailedState #TotalitarianRegime #CoronavirusPandemic #CCPControl #HuangZhou #CasteSystem

Read the Article:
⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24341

#OpinionArticle #HealthCode #MassSurveillance #SocialCreditSystem
Making Health Code Permanent: Authorities' Plan to Mass Surveillance and Chinese Communist Party's Goal to Control

Part 1/2

After deferring the Legislativ Election in Hong Kong, the next political assignment of the Beijing loyalists is to push forward the set up of Health Code in Hong Kong. Pro-Beijing figures in Hong Kong such as Starry Lee Wai-king and Martin Liao Cheung-kong couldn’t wait to abet the Hong Kong SAR government to grant permission for those carrying Health Codes to dine out after 6pm.

Somehow, this has made our earlier prediction come true: The authorities will provide certain incentives to hook the people of Hong Kong into a Social Credit System.

Last July, when I first brought this issue into public discussion in Hong Kong, government official Patrick Nip Tak-kuen promptly responded to my article. He denied that the government was working to establish a social credit system in Hong Kong.

Soon after that, the Chinese Communist Party (#CCP) officials removed Hong Kong from a website run by the Party which displayed an action plan to bring Social Credit System to life in China in 3 years’ time. Apparently, a scam has been busted when meeting the public eyes. However, the action plan has never been truly abandoned, but resurrected through the Wuhan pneumonia and in form of Health Code.

The behavior of the CCP is traceable. Huang Zhou in China was the first Tier 1 city to out the Social Credit System into test. In February 2020, it was again the first city running the Health Code system. Owing to the recoil of public opinion in Huang Zhou where the public has denounced the Health Code system as a new “Caste system”, the CCP hesitated to accelerate the action plan too quickly. Despite this, the authorities are trying to introduce the same coding system in Hong Kong: A Green Code signal means "permission granted" while a Red Code signal means "denial".

Many Huang Zhou citizens were stunned to see their Health Codes turn red for unknown reasons. They were obstructed from going home and forced to be isolated for 14 days for reasons unclear and unexplained. While negative comments help improve the Health Code system through
rounds of critique-and-modification, the system might have built up its public recognition in China. The next action the CCP will take is to make it permanent. In May 2020, the authorities have tried to push forward a nation-wide Health Code.

When questioned, the Hong Kong SAR government repeatedly stressed that local citizen’s data will not be dispatched to China; but, is Hong Kong not part of China?

To be Continued

Source: 作者 #Aug9
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3422735741109873&id=972393926144079

Graphic:
http://myblogs.asia/view2/69340/

#FailedState #TotalitarianRegime #CoronavirusPandemic #CCPControl #HuangZhou #CasteSystem

#Analysis #OpinionArticle #HealthCode #MassSurveillance
Why Health Code is worse than National Security Law

Part 4/4.

A researcher of the Human Rights Watch once said, “the outbreak of Coronavirus is becoming a milestone for China to carry out large scale surveillance.” (n.b. China has recently sanctioned the Chief Executive of Human Rights Watch.)

The long-deployed social credit system in China failed to perform rigorous surveillance, which was criticized for giving rise to “loopholes” during epidemic outbreak.

When designing Health Code, it was meant to gear up suvellience control. Its encroachment to people's privacy is appreciably worse than social credit system.

Today the government may collect your health data, personal data, and details of daily activity for Health Code. Soon afterwards, collecting people's vital data, contents of their online chats will no longer be a fantasy Arabian Nights.

Once the Health Code is put in place, you do not need a prison cell to be imprisoned as your home will become a prison, sparing also court deliberations.

"Want to go out? Denied. … A red health code! "
"Want to ride a car? Denied. … A red health code!"
"Want to go shopping? Denied. … A red health code!"

Compred to Health Code, the detriment of National Security Law is nothing at all.

Source: 書生百用 #Aug13

#SocialCreditSystem #BigData #Privacy #CCP #BlackMirror

Further Reading
Part 1:
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24292

Part 2:
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24316

Part 3:
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24336