Keynote Presentation at Digital Week 2021 Hong Kong Session, on April 21 2021

1. 21 APR 2021 HONG KONG
CHARLES MOK | TECH FOR GOOD ASIA
POST-COVID SECURITY AND
PRIVACY ISSUES AND
TRENDS
FROM RE-OPENING TO RECOVERY

2. WE’VE COME A LONG WAY

3. Source: Wkimedia Commons, under Creative Commons license

4. Source: Wkimedia Commons, under Creative Commons license

5. Johns Hopkins University | https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

6. World Health Organization | https://covid19.who.int/

7. From open data to big data analytics
“Significant Applications of Big Data in
COVID-19 Pandemic”
Indian Journal of Orthopaedics (Jul 2020)
Numerous applications:
Contact tracing/exposure notification
Vaccine discovery

8. Exposure notification apps notify a user if he/she has been "near" someone who later
tested positive for COVID-19, typically using Bluetooth tracking with the users' phones.
Contact tracing apps let users log their location and share it with public health
authorities.
Who’s doing what?
MIT Technology Review: "The Covid Tracing Tracker: What’s happening in coronavirus
apps around the world" (Dec 2020)
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/12/16/1014878/covid-tracing-tracker/
EXPOSURE NOTIFICATION VS CONTACT
TRACING

9. Singapore’s “TraceTogether”
Bluetooth based, app or token
https://www.tracetogether.gov.sg/
Hong Kong’s “LeaveHomeSafe”
QRcode based app
https://www.leavehomesafe.gov.hk/
“Data stored on device” but in case of infection, data will
be uploaded to government
…OR SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN?

10. GAEN
Google Apple Exposure Notification System
Originally known as “Privacy-Preserving Contact Tracing Project”
https://developer.apple.com/exposure-notification/
https://www.google.com/covid19/exposurenotifications/
Decentralised reporting protocol based on bluetooth and privacy-preserving cryptography, running
on both Android and iOS — an “API” for health authorities to develop their EN apps
Adopted by various western countries (Parts of US, UK, Canada, Germany etc) but not well taken up
in Asia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_Notification)
“A Critique of the Google Apple Exposure Notification (GAEN) Framework” (by Prof Jaap-Henk
Hoepman, Radboud University Nijmegen) — https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.05097
“this creates a dormant functionality for mass surveillance at the operating system layer…it does
not technically prevent the health authorities from implementing a purely centralised form of
contact tracing (even though that is the stated aim)”

11. BUT IT WORKS?
“Some evidence” shows that exposure
notification/contract tracing apps do help
bring down COVID-19 cases, even if take-up
rates of these apps are not high
The ultimate question and debate:
How to balance between privacy and
public health
Citizens’ trust levels toward governments

12. WFH TO HYBRID WORK
Reality strikes after race to adopt early in the pandemic
Google Wants Workers To Return To The Office Ahead Of
Schedule: This Looks Like A Blow To The Remote-Work
Trend --
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2021/04/01/google-
wants-workers-to-return-to-the-office-ahead-of-schedule-this-
looks-like-a-blow-to-the-remote-work-trend/
Microsoft: 52% of the company's IMs were being sent
between 6pm and midnight —
https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-revealed-the-latest-
truths-about-working-from-home-one-is-truly-disturbing/
Not to mention: the troubles with Zoom, and indeed any other
video conferencing tools/apps

13. DIGITAL IDENTITY AND OTHER SECURITY
MEASURES, AND THE PRICE TO PAY

14. THE GREAT DEBATE:
VACCINE PASSPORTS
For back to work/school/traffic….etc.
From COVID-19 tests to vaccinations — fake certificates
keep coming, both in paper forms or digital copies
But, what’s in a name: Vaccine
Passport vs Health Certificates?
Issues:
Standards? Privacy?
Inequality?

15. ISRAEL’S GREEN PASS

16. CHINA’S INT’L TRAVEL HEALTH
CERTIFICATE

17. EU’S DIGITAL GREEN
CERTIFICATE

18. NEW YORK’S EXCELSIOR PASS

19. US CDC’S VACCINATION RECORD
CARD
Federal government “will not
maintain centralised vaccination
database”
Most likely there will not be a
‘nationally issued’ vaccine
passport

20. MORE…COMING IN ASIA

21. SINGAPORE’S
STRATEGY
Standards: “HealthCerts is a set of digital standards and
schema for issuing digital COVID-19 test results
certificates that are in line with international standards
and the Singapore Government’s requirements.”
Multiple local firms as “providers”:
https://www.healthcerts.gov.sg/list-of-providers/
Leveraging nation’s “trade bubble” strategy — with
Malaysia, Australia, Hong Kong etc.

22. Early implementation by: IBM Digital Health Pass, CommonPass (supported by World
Economic Forum), Travel Pass (supported by IATA), ICC AOKPass (supported by ICC), etc.
Competing ‘standards’: Linux Foundation Public Health’s COVID-19 Credentials Initiative
(CCI); Vaccination Credential Initiative (VCI) supported by Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, etc.
Public concerns on issues like: privacy, data security risks, discrimination (for access to
services and work, etc.), inequality (within and between nations), normalising health
surveillance, uncertainty of vaccine effects, etc. — all with socio-economical, political and
even racial implications
Creating long-term infrastructure for a time-bound crisis
Reference: Ada Lovelace Institute
https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/project/international-monitor-vaccine-passports-
covid-status-apps/
VACCINE PASSPORTS: WHERE TO GO FROM
HERE?

23. WHO INTERIM
GUIDELINES
Published in March 2021

24. TECHNOLOGY IMPLICATIONS
New technology adoption accelerated
Self-sovereign identity/verifiable
credentials network
Blockchain
Advances in cryptographic key exchange
Decentralised identity (DID)
More effective vaccine tracing
By Daniel Hardman under Creative Commons

25. STAY SAFE, BE HEALTHY
CHARLES MOK
TECH FOR GOOD ASIA
https://www.facebook.com/charles.mok/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesmok/
Twitter: @charlesmok