(Yicai Global) Dec. 12 -- The health code, an omnipresent feature of people’s lives in China for the past three years, is being gradually wound up, and experts suggest that some privacy-related data it collected should be destroyed or sealed off.

As a digital governance infrastructure, the health code was launched on the internet payment apps Alipay and WeChat to help local governments fight the pandemic. And civilians have been obliged to give up part of their privacy to support Covid-19 prevention and control measures.

Ma Lizhuang, leader of the WeChat health code technical team and a distinguished professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, told Yicai Global that private information on an individual in the health code, including from facial recognition, will not be stored in the system.

Some of data had already been collected by the authorities prior to the pandemic, but that related to the results of polymerase chain reaction tests and venues did not exist until after the first outbreak.

Speaking to Yicai Global, Zheng Lei, a professor at Fudan University’s School of International Relations and Public Affairs, said that the key now is what to do with these two types of stored data.

Zheng said that data such as test results and venue information should be destroyed, sealed or completely desensitized. All kinds of information integrated by the health code platform should also return to a state where it can only be managed and used lawfully by the original authorities, and will no longer be shared. The information collection from venue codes should also be withdrawn.

In future, the health code should conform to its initial purpose, which was for the service and convenience of people, and should be used by them voluntarily, he added.

For instance, if a citizen does not have a medical insurance card when visiting a doctor, they should be able to use the health code instead of the card to register and pay by scanning the code, Zheng said.

The code can also be converted into an electronic ID or electronic business card, which can be used to make appointments to enter libraries, museums, and government offices, he added.

But Zheng stressed that during normal times, the health code should only be used to facilitate medical treatment. The background data of administrative departments and firms should no longer be integrated into the health code as it was during the pandemic. “The medical authorities do not need to know people’s travel information,” he noted.

China has already issued specific regulations regarding the disposal of personal information, which bans the excessive collection of data and its use for other purposes. Some provinces and municipalities have strictly executed the regular elimination of venue codes. 

Editors: Shi Yi, Peter Thomas