Coronavirus: tracking function for Hong Kong’s ‘Leave Home Safe’ app would not be illegal, privacy chief tells lawmakers
- Privacy commissioner Ada Chung offers assessment under questioning from lawmakers pressing for inclusion of such a feature amid surge in coronavirus cases
- In the same meeting, constitutional affairs chief Erick Tsang did not say whether a tracking feature was in the works, but stressed ‘pandemic is at a critical juncture’
Adding a tracking function to Hong Kong’s “Leave Home Safe” Covid-19 contact-tracing app would not violate data protection laws, the city’s privacy commissioner said on Thursday, under questioning from lawmakers pressing for the inclusion of such a feature amid a surge in coronavirus cases.
Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data Ada Chung Lai-ling said the existing law did not preclude an operator from incorporating a tracking function into a mobile application, citing social media apps as an example.
The city’s Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance also contained an explicit exemption for health-related scenarios, she added during a virtual meeting of the Legislative Council’s constitutional affairs panel.
The “Leave Home Safe” app was introduced by authorities in late 2020, and has since been made mandatory when entering a growing list of premises, including restaurants and government facilities.
The app requires users to scan a QR code upon entering a venue, then sends notifications if they are found to have potentially been exposed to a coronavirus patient who visited the same place. All data collected is stored on users’ phones, and widespread privacy concerns have led the government to repeatedly stress that the current version does not have a tracking function.
However, health authorities have recently said they are reviewing the need to add such a feature amid a record-smashing surge in Covid-19 cases.
Speaking at Thursday’s meeting, which came a day after Hong Kong recorded more than 1,000 new cases for the first time, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang Kwok-wai acknowledged residents’ worries, but also asked for their cooperation – without saying definitively whether a tracking feature was in the works.
“I want to stress that the pandemic is at a critical juncture,” he said, adding the government would “strike a balance and proceed on the basis that we have to prevail in this pandemic”.
