Mind The Tech: App Meant To Track COVID Cases Ends Up Tracking Cheating Partners In South Korea

In South Korea, the government reportedly created a public database of coronavirus cases very early on. It is said to provide detailed information about every infected individual, including their exact movements around the country.

The database is constantly updated using location information from credit card transactions, mobile phone signal data, and closed-circuit TV footage.

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With the government's stringent COVID-19 protocol, South Korea managed to push back numbers drastically.

More recently, an app developed by 19-year-old IT student to track COVID-19 positive cases, ended up sharing some unexpected results. According to Metro UK, a Channel 4 documentary named ¡®The Country That Beat The Virus¡¯ revealed that coronavirus tracking app in South Korea accidentally exposed couples who were cheating on their partner.

The high-tech app reportedly used GPS on phones, information from credit card transactions and CCTV footage to monitor a person's whereabouts.

¡°Some people would connect the dots thinking, wait a minute, I know someone who¡¯s 58-years-old, who lives in this area, who is a banker. You had cases where people were in places they shouldn¡¯t have been in such as hotels and motels," a local explained the embarrassing situation in ¡®The Country That Beat The Virus¡¯ documentary.

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The Channel 4 documentary examines the way in which South Korea tackled the coronavirus pandemic without a restrictive national lockdown.

The synopsis says it also explores explores ¡°how the authorities are dealing with current small-scale flare ups ¨C and asks whether what¡¯s happened there may reveal what life could be like in the UK when lockdown finally ends¡±. The documentary was filmed in hospitals, testing centres and laboratories in South Korea and features interviews with politicians and scientists.

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¡®If the footage showed the patient arrived at 2pm and left at 3pm, they [the government] need to locate who they¡¯d been in contact with during that time,¡¯ one of the country¡¯s leading scientists explained in the film.

The documentary goes on to show how the South Korean government is dealing with the pandemic and the steps being taken to keep people safe. The country has reported a total of 10,991 COVID-19 cases so far with 260 deaths.