As Chinese authorities expand use of health tracking apps, privacy concerns grow

A woman enters details into her health app after scanning a QR code at a checkpoint to the 798 art district in Beijing following the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, China April 29, 2020. Picture taken April 29, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's health tracking QR codes, which have played a key part in the country's successful containment of the coronavirus, now look set to play a much broader role in daily life as local authorities dream up new uses for the technology.

Embedded in the popular WeChat and Alipay smartphone apps, the codes use self-reported and automatically collected travel and medical data to give people a red, yellow or green rating indicating the likelihood of having the virus.