SEOUL: When a man in Seoul tested positive for the new coronavirus in May, South Korean authorities were able to confirm his wide-ranging movements in and outside the city in minutes, including five bars and clubs he visited on a recent night out.
The fast response – well ahead of many other countries facing outbreaks – was the result of merging South Korea’s already advanced methods of collecting information and tracking the virus into a new data sharing system that patches together cellphone location data and credit card records.