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South Korea Balances Privacy, Public Health in Virus Fight

William Gallo

   South Korea is one of very few countries to contain the coronavirus
   without resorting to mass lockdowns. So how did they do it?

   At the forefront of South Korea's strategy was a rapid rollout of
   coronavirus testing that is widely seen as the global standard. The
   testing campaign has been so successful that South Korean companies are
   now exporting test kits across the world.

   But underpinning South Korea's coronavirus success is a sweeping web of
   digital surveillance that lawmakers have reinforced specifically to
   contain epidemics.

   Burned by the previous MERS virus outbreak, which killed 39 South
   Koreans, lawmakers in 2015 loosened digital privacy laws. During
   outbreaks, authorities now have access to personal data without needing
   court approval. And there is lots of it, since South Korea is one of
   the world's most-wired countries.

   The data -- including cell phone, GPS, and bank records, along with
   closed-circuit TV footage -- supercharged South Korea's attempts to
   locate the path of individual coronavirus infections, as well as inform
   and isolate those exposed.

   Digital tracing also allowed South Korea to fight the coronavirus in a
   more targeted way without shutting down its economy. Even at the height
   of the outbreak, life in South Korea has never felt "locked down" as in
   many other parts of the world.

   As a result, more South Koreans have been able to keep their jobs,
   leave their homes to shop or eat at restaurants, and in recent
   elections, even vote at the highest rate in nearly three decades.

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