HONG KONG – Cheap burner phones are witnessing a huge demand in Hong Kong as the city government eased pandemic curbs and pushed the use of a contact-tracing application, stoking privacy concerns.
The authoritarian stance adopted by the city government by denying the rights and freedoms has triggered deep-seated mistrust of public policies, including steps to stem the spread of the virus.
The city’s Health Secretary Sophia Chan said the application posed no security threats, adding that no third party collects it. The application notifies users if they have been in the same place with a person confirmed with the virus.
“I’m buying a burner phone because the government clearly doesn’t trust Hong Kong people, so why would I trust them?” said Vincent, 28, an accountant.
On Thursday, the former British colony lifted restrictions on how many people could sit together in restaurants to four from two and the curfew for dining is now 10 pm instead of the earlier 6 pm.
Restaurants, gyms and beauty salons have been told to write down the names and details of customers or ask them to scan a QR code with the LeaveHomeSafe app of the authorities used for contact tracing.
Civil servants have been ordered to scan the code before entering and leaving offices.
The cheap electronics hub of Sham Shui Po is witnessing brisk sales of old smartphones since last week.
“People are just looking for a cheap smartphone that can run the LeaveHomeSafe app,” said Wong, a vendor, who said she sold 50 devices in the past week.
“I have seen a lot more people asking about and buying older phones over Chinese New Year,” said Andy Kwok of Ah Ling Telecommunications. “I have had to tell them the phone needs to be at least on Android 8 (for the app) to run.”