Countries are using apps and data networks to keep tabs on the pandemic
And also, in the process, their citizens
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HAVING BEEN quarantined at his parents’ house in the Hebei province in northern China for a month, Elvis Liu arrived back home in Hong Kong on February 23rd. Border officials told him to add their office’s number to his WhatsApp contacts and to fix the app’s location-sharing setting to “always on”, which would let them see where his phone was at all times. They then told him to get home within two hours, close the door and stay there for two weeks.
This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “Creating the coronopticon”
From the March 28th 2020 edition
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