◼ TECHNOLOGY Bloomberg Businessweek April 20, 202020
ILLUSTRATION BY XAVIER LALANNE-TAUZIATHEBOTTOMLINE WhiletheU.S.governmentis relyingontech
companiestodeliverinformationaboutcoronavirusinfections,
countriesin Asiaseemtohavehadbetterluckwithvolunteers.a linkhepostedonFacebookwentviral.Soon
after,Leeenlisted 20 fellowstudentstohelphim
uploadthelocationsofinfectedpeopledisclosed
ongovernmentwebsites.Thesitehasremainedone
ofSouthKorea’sleadingsourcesforaccuratetallies
ofconfirmedinfectionsandplaceswhereinfected
peoplehavecirculated.“Ihopewehavezeroinfec-
tionssoonsothateveryone’slifecangetbackto
normal,”Leesays.“ThenI willclosemywebsite.”
AppleInc.andGooglearedevelopingsoftware
toalertsmartphoneuserswhentheycomeincon-
tactwithsomeonewho’stestedpositiveforCovid-
19,butinSouthKorea,Taiwan,andotherplaces,
coderssuchasLeehavesteppeduptohelpkeep
peopleinformed.Someareprofessionalwebdevel-
opers;othersfancythemselveswhite-hat( good-
guy)hackersorcivichackerswhoengagedirectly
withtheirgovernments.AlthoughAsiancountries
aren’tuniqueinthisregard—seencov2019.live,cre-
atedbyU.S.highschoolstudentAviSchiffman,or
a listofprivacyguidelinesbytheChaosComputer
Club,Germany’scivic-hackingcollective—volunteer
programmingseemstohavehelpedflattenthecurve
andsavelives.SoonafterLee’swebsitewentup,
hewasaskedtocomeexplainit toSouthKorean
PresidentMoonJae-in.
InTaiwanthegovernmenthashelpedcoordinate
civic-hackingefforts.InFebruary,afteranengineer
createdanappthatmapswhichstoreshavemasks
forsaleneartheuser,itspopularityquicklythreat-
enedtooverwhelmhim.Taiwan’sdigitalminister,
AudreyTang,askedGoogletowaivetheengineer’s
cloud-hostingfeesandprovidea teamtokeepthe
appstable,accordingtolocalnewsreports.Google
didn’trespondtorequestsforcomment.
Tang,a civichackerbeforejoiningthecabinetin
2016,createdhergovernment’sinfection-location
mapandmobilizedvolunteerstohelpcoordinate
thedatabasewithlocalpharmacistsinrealtime.
“Itnotonlyimprovestheefficiencyinallocation
butalsojustcalmseverybodydown,becausepeo-
pleknowthere’smoremaskscoming,”Tangsaid
duringa visittoWashington,D.C.,lastmonth.
Taiwanhadpreviouslymanagedtowranglea hand-
fulofvolunteerstoworkonindividualprojects, but
hundreds pitched in to help fight Covid-19’s spread.
“This is indeed the first time that so many citizen
hacker community developers have developed
hundreds of applications for a single issue,” Finjon
Kiang, a software developer in Tainan, wrote on an
information-sharing site for hackers.
Japan has enlisted community developers,
including high school kids, to help create a multi-
lingual website for metro Tokyo and another for
the whole country. “I was very surprised how thelocal community has strong motivation to help the
government,” Hal Seki, founder of Code for Japan,
a civic tech group, said on a recent call with about
two dozen civic hackers from around Asia. Kenji
Hiramoto, a senior Japanese official, says such coop-
eration was a first for Tokyo, and working with the
civic tech community made development faster than
it would have been with Japanese companies.
Some volunteers say their work is also aimed at
ensuring their governments remain transparent and
protectcitizens’privacy.KevinChu,a 20-year-oldin
Singaporewhocodesinhissparetime,sayscurios-
ityledhimtotakeapartthegovernment-designed
TraceTogether app after it launched last month.
Singapore’s Government Technology Agency had
assured the public that the app, which records
and relays users’ location data, was voluntary and
wouldstrictlylimitwhocouldusethefindings.Yet
Chufoundreferencestoa governmentdatacollec-
tionagencyembeddedinlinesofcode.Hepublishedhis findings about the potential privacy flaw online,
then contacted the developers, who he says updated
the app to remove it. “I like to find out how things
work,” he told Bloomberg Businessweek via email.
“Individual efforts can be important in verifying
claims that an app developer has put forward.”
That’s harder in authoritarian countries such as
China, where officials are less inclined to pay atten-
tion to white-hat hackers like South Korea’s Lee
Doo-hee. He’s leading a team of student coders to
develop a mask inventory website. Government offi-
cials offered to provide the data, but Lee is paying for
cloud hosting. “Civic hacking can make the govern-
ment change,” says Lee, who notes that it became an
important outlet in a country with a history of street
protests.” �Sheridan Prasso and Sohee Kim“I hope we have
zero infections
soon so that
everyone’s life
can get back to
normal”