With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to spread, the Taiwanese government has created a kind of "electronic fence" based on mobile phone GPS in order to monitor the location of citizens in quarantine.
Governments around the world are using technology to help citizens and businesses quarantined to slow the spread of the virus, but Taiwan is the first country to create this phone-.
Phone tracking system
Under the new system, the location of smartphones is constantly monitored, so that police and local authorities are notified when a citizen who is normally in quarantine tries to leave their home or turns off device .
Within 15 minutes of being notified, authorities contact these citizens or visit their residence. In addition, police call twice a day to make sure users do not leave their devices at home where they cannot be tracked.
The head of Taiwan's Cyber Security Department, Jyan Hong-Wei, who is working with telecommunications companies to enforce the quarantine, said: "The goal is to stop people from moving around and spreading the infection.".
Concerns about privacy
Privacy concerns have led to stricter policies on access to citizens' data due to the coronavirus. However, the system in Taiwan has not been met with much criticism so far. The country has about 108 cases so far, a number considered insignificant compared to the more than 80,000 cases in neighboring China.
A flight attendant in Taipei, who was placed in a 14-day quarantine after returning from a trip to Europe, said authorities reprimanded her when she failed to answer a check-up call one morning because she was sleeping.
“They told me the police would come to my house if I didn’t answer one more phone call,” says the woman, who goes by the name Xiaomei. “They’re treating me like a prisoner.”
Those who violate quarantine rules may pay fines of up to T$1 million ($32,955).
