The Hong Kong government recently admitted that its contact tracing mobile app LeaveHomeSafe contains a facial recognition function. However, the authorities claimed that they didn’t know about it before and had never used the feature.
Hong Kong residents have had concerns since the introduction of LeaveHomeSafe. Many have expressed fear of it becoming the government’s tool for implementing stricter social control or infringing on people’s privacy.
Wong Ho-wa, a Hong Kong data scientist and pro-democracy activist, said the government should make the app’s source code available to the public to mitigate public concerns.
Antony Leung, a senior media professional in Hong Kong, said the contact tracing app pushed by the city’s government appeared awfully similar to mainland China’s “social credit system,” a system that utilizes artificial intelligence and facial recognition to conduct mass surveillance and assign points on citizens’ behavior.
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