Hangzhou considers expansion options for coronavirus surveillance app

China is adding new features to its coronavirus surveillance app, which has helped many workers and employers return to their former lives, and looks likely to become a permanent fixture. Zhou Jiangyong, the Communist Party secretary of the eastern city of Hangzhou, has said the city's app, which it has begun linking to citizens' medical records, should become a beloved "intimate health guardian" for residents, who can use it to schedule hospital visits. The authorities are considering expanding the app's capabilities to rank citizens with a "personal health index" scored from 9 to 100 based on how much they sleep, how many steps they take, how much they smoke and drink, and other metrics. Shanghai wants to make its app a digital assistant for accessing local services, and the city of Zining incorporates coupons for local stores that the app unlocks.  In one town in Zhejiang Province, officials are developing a separate tool, the "honesty health code", which measures the health of "party spirit". 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/technology/china-coronavirus-surveillance.html
Writer: Raymond Zhong
Publication: New York Times