Data privacy concerns over Thailand's COVID-19 contact tracing app amid new wave of cases

By Pichayada Promchertchoo

 

Mor Chana or Doctors Win is a contact tracing mobile app used by the Thai government to control the spread of COVID-19. (Photo: Department of Public Relations)

 

BANGKOK: There have been concerns over data privacy in Thailand’s COVID-19 contact tracing app, as the country battles a new wave of infections.

 

Despite these challenges, the authorities are trying to encourage more people to use the app, including via efforts to protect personal information.

 

Since mid-December, Thailand has reported more than 14,000 new cases from several clusters, following months of zero local transmissions. In total, there are now more than 23,000 confirmed cases in the country.

 

Full story: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/transparency-thailand-covid19-contact-tracing-app-mor-chana-14096014

 

 

-- © Copyright Channel NewsAsia 2021-02-08

 

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54 minutes ago, webfact said:

There have been concerns over data privacy in Thailand’s COVID-19 contact tracing app, as the country battles a new wave of infections.

Until the concept of any security, not just data security is taken seriously, these concerns will continue.

 

As I've posted before, when ferangs see immigration using the rear of visa applications as scrap paper to write notes on, it will not be taken seriously.

8 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

Until the concept of any security, not just data security is taken seriously, these concerns will continue.

 

As I've posted before, when ferangs see immigration using the rear of visa applications as scrap paper to write notes on, it will not be taken seriously.

And it's a fair bet that the reams of paper purchased for that function are side-tracked elsewhere, hence the need for the recycling of old applications. 

 

When Immigration offices don't use the Governments app for themselves or the folks entering then there is a true concern.  It was why after I went to MTT and found that they don't use it that I uninstalled it myself.  Of no use.  I will just sign the book at the door, well maybe walk by it and just have my temperature taken like most of the Thai's do entering the malls, and stores.  The ramped up extra precautions lasted less than 2 weeks after this current outbreak.

What is the point of having the app when the government hides cases, a friends girlfriend was ousted from Banglamung hospital last week by the nursing staff as there were five cases of Covid in the hospital but to my knowledge this incident plus none of these infections have been reported ...............!!!!

Maybe replace the app with a cow/buffalo bell.

Hate to say I told you so but I told you so. 

15 minutes ago, Geoffggi said:

What is the point of having the app when the government hides cases, a friends girlfriend was ousted from Banglamung hospital last week by the nursing staff as there were five cases of Covid in the hospital but to my knowledge this incident plus none of these infections have been reported ...............!!!!

A month or so back there was 'officially' one case in Udon.

My wife's friend works in the Udon hospital where all the cases are logged in the computer system. She told my wife there were three cases in the hospital.

Government lying - shurely shome mishtake?

45 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

As I've posted before, when ferangs see immigration using the rear of visa applications as scrap paper to write notes on, it will not be taken seriously.

I am not happy about corrupt and authoritarian regimes having my fingerprints and other biometric data either.

38 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

It was why after I went to MTT and found that they don't use it that I uninstalled it myself. 

A few months ago I went to MTT to do my reporting. I got there just before they opened at 1pm. I joined the queue where everyone was 'social distancing' making the queue extremely long. 

 

Just before they opened the doors to allow everyone in, an official came out asking everyone to scan his mobile to register their presence there. Dang near everyone thronged around him. Huh, so much for social distancing. The official was totally oblivious to what he had done. After he went back inside, there was just a big crowd outside the doors and no semblance of a queue anymore.

11 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

A month or so back there was 'officially' one case in Udon.

My wife's friend works in the Udon hospital where all the cases are logged in the computer system. She told my wife there were three cases in the hospital.

Government lying - shurely shome mishtake?

Get me an rough date range and I can look it up.

 

Thailand maintains a complete record of every positive case reported with lots of information on dates, locations, hospitals, nationality, etc.  It's open access.

 

It will still be a bit he said she said but would be interesting to see.

 

34 minutes ago, Bruce Aussie Chiang Mai said:

Maybe replace the app with a cow/buffalo bell.

If they ever have a lot of up country cases, I'm absolutely certain someone will eventually think to put a small bell on them. 

2 hours ago, rabas said:

Get me an rough date range and I can look it up.

 

Thailand maintains a complete record of every positive case reported with lots of information on dates, locations, hospitals, nationality, etc.  It's open access.

 

It will still be a bit he said she said but would be interesting to see.

It was 'just after' the panic at Samut Sakhon shrimp market. That was near the end of December IIRC. Someone who drove back to Udon from the market brought Covid back. That was the one reported case in the news. The two others (apparently in the same village) didn't make it into any reports.

See what you can find.

42 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

It was 'just after' the panic at Samut Sakhon shrimp market. That was near the end of December IIRC. Someone who drove back to Udon from the market brought Covid back. That was the one reported case in the news. The two others (apparently in the same village) didn't make it into any reports.

See what you can find.

I found one case in Udon for December 24,  2020. A 30 year old male. Thai case number 5811. That's probably the one you refer to.

 

The problem with the rest is someone said some one said something. If you picture the Thai government as a bungling idiot, it is hard to envision them pulling off Chinese CCP type repression.

 

I do know that to just perform a test, the hospital must first request a case number from a central database, after which the govt pays.

 

37 minutes ago, rabas said:

I found one case in Udon for December 24,  2020. A 30 year old male. Thai case number 5811. That's probably the one you refer to.

 

The problem with the rest is someone said some one said something. If you picture the Thai government as a bungling idiot, it is hard to envision them pulling off Chinese CCP type repression.

 

I do know that to just perform a test, the hospital must first request a case number from a central database, after which the govt pays.

That's interesting, thanks.

 

I'm assuming the nurse mentioned the same one you've quoted as she checked the same system.

A couple of days later she said there were two more cases, having checked again.

 

I wonder how it can happen like that, especially as you said they have to request a case number. Even say, if they were negative after testing it should show up on the system? I'm not going to suggest some conspiracy theory regarding the records being deleted, surely.

 

When I've been to Udon hospital with my wife, her friend bumped my wife up the queue in the department she went to as an outpatient.

 

If it's open access where can I find it?

29 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

That's interesting, thanks.

 

I'm assuming the nurse mentioned the same one you've quoted as she checked the same system.

A couple of days later she said there were two more cases, having checked again.

 

I wonder how it can happen like that, especially as you said they have to request a case number. Even say, if they were negative after testing it should show up on the system? I'm not going to suggest some conspiracy theory regarding the records being deleted, surely.

 

When I've been to Udon hospital with my wife, her friend bumped my wife up the queue in the department she went to as an outpatient.

 

If it's open access where can I find it?

There is lots of data but some is not well organized and Thai vs English versions can differ as they spend less time on translation. You also need to push buttons and poke into directories to explore. The list of cases is here:

 

https://covid19.ddc.moph.go.th/th/api

-- you need to push the 3rd item "covid19.th-stat.com/api/open/cases"

-- then press the raw data button at the top and you see all the cases in Thailand.

They also have buttons to download files in JSON format.

 

Another data set is the pneumonia tracking system which tracks the hospitals and entry points. They release new data pages every day. English pages are similar but different and one day behind. This is were you see to one million tested cases etc.

 

https://ddc.moph.go.th/viralpneumonia/situation.php  (situation ages, click day)

https://ddc.moph.go.th/viralpneumonia/eng/index.php  (an English from page)

https://ddc.moph.go.th/viralpneumonia/eng/situation.php (delayed English data pages)

 

If you really want to explore, you should use google translate on the Thai versions, not the English versions as they are sometimes incomplete,

 

34 minutes ago, rabas said:

There is lots of data but some is not well organized and Thai vs English versions can differ as they spend less time on translation. You also need to push buttons and poke into directories to explore. The list of cases is here:

 

https://covid19.ddc.moph.go.th/th/api

-- you need to push the 3rd item "covid19.th-stat.com/api/open/cases"

-- then press the raw data button at the top and you see all the cases in Thailand.

They also have buttons to download files in JSON format.

 

Another data set is the pneumonia tracking system which tracks the hospitals and entry points. They release new data pages every day. English pages are similar but different and one day behind. This is were you see to one million tested cases etc.

 

https://ddc.moph.go.th/viralpneumonia/situation.php  (situation ages, click day)

https://ddc.moph.go.th/viralpneumonia/eng/index.php  (an English from page)

https://ddc.moph.go.th/viralpneumonia/eng/situation.php (delayed English data pages)

 

If you really want to explore, you should use google translate on the Thai versions, not the English versions as they are sometimes incomplete,

 

Thanks for the info.

Just searching initially for Udon Thani seems to indicate to me there are 11 entries over the past year.

I'll do some more searching later.

Here is another link to a clickable map of Thailand in English. It has not been updated since 14-Jan. And Buen Kan is the only province in green - this might mean that they have with no reported cases. Phetchaburi numbers appear to be as per other government reported numbers.

 

I don't know how accurate it is, or if this map will ever be updated. Maybe there are just too many cases.

 

https://covid19.th-stat.com/en/share/map