[LINK] Off Topic: 1 Why China’s extreme coronavirus controls are unlikely to work elsewhere

[Tom Worthington]

On 23/7/20 5:17 pm, Stephen Loosley wrote:

> Why China’s extreme coronavirus controls are unlikely to work elsewhere
> https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3094140/why-chinas-extreme-coronavirus-controls-are-unlikely-work

In World War II Australia had local cadres of air raid wardens enforcing 
blackouts. Given the propensity of some on social media to report on the 
activities of their neighbors, it would not be difficult to set up a 
modern online equivalent. ;-)

While Australian governments may not have a very sophisticated domestic 
surveillance system in place, our private sector does. It would not be 
difficult to use electronic payments to identify individuals who are 
going out too much and too far.

Ten years ago I had my car serviced on one side of Canberra. I then 
drove to the other side and bought an appliance. A few minutes later my 
credit card company called to verify these were legitimate payments. The 
wide geographic spread and narrow time-frame made them suspicious.

Perhaps nudge techniques could be used rather than threats:

	"As a gold level customer we are now offering services to save you the 
stress of shopping out. For a limited time our partners are now offering 
a free home delivery service for your online purchases. Or you can use 
our one-stop curbside pickups: order online and collect everything at 
once from your nearest center.".


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Honorary Lecturer, Computer Science, Australian National University 
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