Public health vs. personal privacy during COVID-19 in China.

As an important part of the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, a series of effective prevention and control measures have been taken by the Chinese government to contain the spread of COVID-19 on the mainland by tracking the human flow. Everyone is requested to show a health QR code and to take temperature before entering public places. By doing so, the citizen’s temperature data, personal information, location, movement, and other forms of tracing information can be collected. As the information is collected, transmitted and processed, citizens’ privacy is at risk of being exploited. Rising issues about data protection, security and privacy have become the most imperative ethical concerns in China. This chapter seeks to critically discuss and analyze the government policies, the rising issues, the responses from the public and the government in China to explore how China has handled and managed the issue of mobile privacy while leveraging mobile as an effective way to contain the spread of COVID-19.