Sri Lanka government is availing every surveillance tool at their disposal to help curtail the spread of the novel corona virus as the tally of COVID-19 infections in Sri Lanka has climbed to 254 cases.
Defence secretary Major General Kamal Gunaratne revealed that the latest action will be to track people suspected or confirmed to have been infected with the corona virus by monitoring their mobile phones.
Intelligence officers will obtain the assistance of telecommunication service providers to trace contacts and places visited by COVID-19 patients.
Dispelling the immediately raising of privacy concerns in the country, he said that they are doing this only to trace the people who have close connections with corona virus infected persons and those who are still evading quarantine.
Government seeks telecommunication providers assistance to develop a mobile app that tracks people and alerts them if they have been in “close contact with someone infected” with the corona virus.
No one should interpret this as phone tapping because it is intended to help identify new cases and those at risk, and there was no intention to expose embarrassing personal information. official sources disclosed.
He added that intelligence units, with the assistance of software, will identify infected persons, and would hand over those details to the relevant authorities for further action.
He said authorities would use the data to notify people who may have come into contact with corona virus infected persons, and also to enforce quarantine orders.
The government will maintain the balance between civil rights and the public needs without breaching people’s privacy,official sources said said adding that these tools will very much assist us in locating the sick and stopping the virus from spreading.
China has used “close contact detector”helping users to scan a QR code on popular Chinese apps like WeChat and QQ, and submit their name, phone number and government-issued ID number to request information about whether they have been in close contact with anyone infected by the virus.
(LI)