Forbes March 23, 2020
Statistics and experts seem to suggest that, as I write this, China – the starting point and original epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic – is starting to contain its spread. But it has come at a cost.
Even before the outbreak, Chinese citizens were subject to far more stringent levels of state surveillance, and technology-driven tracking measures than most of us in the West are used to. In the changing world we find ourselves living in now, that intrusion into day-to-day life has greatly intensified.
Officials have deployed helmet-mounted cameras able to identify residents with raised body temperatures amongst crowds of people, and smartphone apps use machine learning to rate citizens using a color-coded scheme that awards them a...