Vietnam has been lauded for its robust response in containing Covid-19, part of which has been the rolling out of contact-tracing app Bluezone. But tech experts are expressing concern over how the masses of data collected will impact the privacy of users.
Independent media, academics and governments alike have lavished praise on the Vietnamese government for its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, with mass quarantines, effective public health messaging, a focused testing regime and uncharacteristic transparency all applauded.
He used the software development platform GitHub to post his reverse-engineered experiment that he says proves the app can still collect user data at any time, without the users’ consent.
«The data contains the full contact history collected by the app. This means if I was sitting next to you, and we had our phones with us, the app on my phone would record that it saw the app on your phone, at this time and for how long,» he told thhe Globe in a recent interview.
«Does it comply with cyber security regulations? Health care regulations? There are strong standards in health care like the Hippocratic oath. No one can say it’s been certified, so how can they ask people to use it?» he asked.
While tech insiders may be reluctant to entrust their data with Bluezone and the government, the huge download numbers suggest the Vietnamese public lacks the same reticence.
The server can map the data to a phone number, and from there to an actual person. This means if you run the app, the server can tell whom you met, when and for how long
This article was written by Sarah Kim
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