Only the director general of health can request this information or authorise a request for the information. The legislation is clear on what can be stored on the database. It relates mainly to contact details. The data base will be deactivated and the tracked people informed of the fact after the national emergency is over.
South Korea and China used similar technology to track down citizens who had violated their quarantine orders.
More changes on the way
And there are more changes on this front as Google and Apple work together to create a cell phone alert system. The new system will alert people who are in the vicinity of a person known as positive for Covid-19.
The technology uses Bluetooth, a system installed on most cell phones. When released the app that will be available on Apple and Android phones. It is completely voluntary, and users’ private information is not open to the public.
This is how it works. If you’ve tested positive you log it onto the app. The app will send a message to everyone that has been close to you over the past 14 days. The recipient of the message will not know who it is that is positive. They will simply receive a warning to go in for a test or self-isolate.
Hope for Africa
Digital tracking has many experts concerned about the breaching of the personal information previously protected by privacy laws. But, cell phones may be the best way to bring the virus under control in places like Africa where the viral infection rate is still at a fairly early stage. It is the best chance that we have of keeping at bay a virus that starts spreading long before it makes you sick.