In China, the use of the QR code for purposes other than health is controversial
A man wearing a face mask scans a QR code for a health monitoring app to enter a store in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province, Friday, June 17, 2022. AP
Text by: Stéphane Lagarde Follow
5 mins
It is a decision that scandalized even the state media in China this week: the diversion of QR codes for purposes other than health, in this case to prevent small savers from withdrawing their money.
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With our correspondent in Beijing,
Initially, there are the financial difficulties of four Henan banks.
Small savers who live in neighboring provinces, sometimes in the same province, but far from the provincial capital Zhengzhou, have for some been confined to their homes for long weeks, when suddenly they learn that a shareholder of one of the banks is on the run.
They then decide to go up to Zhengzhou to withdraw their assets, except that when they get off the bus, when they arrive at the station or the airport: code red!
On their smartphone, their health QR code has changed color: red is assigned to carriers of the virus or close contact, when they had done a PCR test before leaving.
This one, negative, is essential to be able to travel to China.
A health QR code - the health pass on mobile phones - is marked with red pixels, and you are immediately blocked!
The interested parties quickly understood, above all, that they were taken for marbles.
"
Don't use big data to play tricks on me,
" one savers told the Zhengzhou platform 12345 - the local government's people-only phone number - in a recording.
I'm also a computer engineer, you know, so don't play this little game with me!
"
Did you take a test when you arrived?"
», Answers an agent.
“
Of course it is, and no problem, it's negative.
I did it after getting off the plane.
If we don't do that, we won't get out of the airport, are you aware (ironic)?
".
He explains that he took the test the morning before.
“
Now I want you to explain to me how I ended up with a code red?!?
»
A worker wearing a protective suit holds a paper with a QR code for Beijing health code enforcement at a private coronavirus testing site in Beijing, Wednesday, January 26, 2022. AP - Mark Schiefelbein
A bad color change
The Shanghai-based information site
Sixth Tone
, whose editor-in-chief warned in April 2020 of the risks of misappropriation of personal data collected for the purposes of disease prevention, explains that small owners of apartments under construction , but whose construction site is stopped, also saw their health pass turn red last Sunday, after launching a petition at Zhengzhou City Hall.
The city had already been pinned last year for having ordered a system for monitoring the movements of journalists via telephones and
facial recognition cameras
.
The case was then censored, which is not the case this time.
Because on social networks, testimonials accumulate.
In a video posted June 14 on the Weibo network, a woman is in tears.
She managed to get to the bank, but once there, she was forcibly restrained by ten security guards.
"
I'm just an ordinary citizen, I don't know much, but I know it's my money!"
she exclaims.
“
You are the bank I deposited it in.
We should be free to withdraw it and you want to stop us…give me back the money!
»
The case immediately went viral.
State media was quick to draw a red line to code red usage.
“
Health codes can only be used for epidemic prevention
,” writes the
Global Times
columnist .
Same story a few days later at the
Henan
daily : "
the" health codes "can only be used for purposes related to Covid
".
“
The purpose of epidemic prevention and control is clear: if citizens are limited by the code red when they want to exercise other rights, the objective intended by the health code is lost
”, affirms in the official media a Shanghai lawyer quoted by the
China Digital Times
.
A worker wearing protective clothing and carrying a megaphone holds a sheet with a QR code for people queuing for COVID-19 tests at a testing site, on the third day of mass testing for millions of residents in the Chaoyang district in Beijing, Wednesday, June 15, 2022. AP - Mark Schiefelbein
The health QR code is a sacred tool for tracing viral pneumonia, and
when it bugs, or stops, as during the Zhengzhou floods just last summer
, the contact case tracing chain is broken.
However, the tool can only work thanks to the sacrifice of certain personal data, for the common good.
The problem is that this kind of algorithm, used here for monitoring an epidemic, can be easily diverted to other uses.
Especially since “
there is no supercomputer that manages the health passes of the 1.4 billion Chinese (…) there is not a single Big Brother in charge of this affair, so this is not is not yet Black Mirror
”, underlines the specialized Newsletter
Pekingology
, recalling that it is the cities which each impose their respective system.
Has the central government let the scandal escalate to remind certain prohibitions for the provinces which have financial difficulties linked to the real estate crisis?
The incident will in any case have revealed the difficulties of the banks and “
a huge scam of 5.7 billion euros pointed out by the finance section of the Sina portal
”, notes the
Courrier international
.
As for the diversion of QR codes, an internal investigation has in any case been launched in Zhengzhou to find the officials who decided to use health data for political purposes.
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