Beijing rolls out colour-coded QR system for coronavirus tracking despite concerns over privacy, inaccurate ratings

  • Beijing residents will be assigned coloured QR codes, with only those with green codes being able to move around the city freely
  • The system, which has been rolled out in more than 100 cities across the country, has been criticised for a lack of transparency and potential mislabelling

A driver showing his green health code to enter an apartment complex in China. Photo: Handout

China’s capital city has joined a national initiative to assign residents coloured QR codes that determine whether they have to be quarantined, despite concerns of mislabelling and privacy leaks.

The QR code system, launched through Ant Financial’s Alipay in Hangzhou on February 11, assigns users one of three coloured QR codes – green, yellow and red. Chinese state media outlet Xinhua News reported that the system covered three provinces initially – Zhejiang, Sichuan and Hainan – and the municipality of Chongqing with a total population of nearly 180 million, and would soon cover the entire country. It had been adopted in over 100 cities across the country within a week, according to Xinhua.
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