Information Source Characteristics of Personal Data Leakage During the COVID-19 Pandemic in China: Observational Study.

BACKGROUND

During the COVID-19 pandemic, in the period of preventing and controlling the spread of the virus, a large amount of personal data was collected in China, and privacy leakage incidents occurred.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to examine the information source characteristics of personal data leakage during the COVID-19 pandemic in China.

METHODS

We extracted information source characteristics of 40 personal data leakage cases using open coding and analyzed the data with 1D and 2D matrices.

RESULTS

In terms of organizational characteristics, data leakage cases mainly occurred in government agencies below the prefecture level, while few occurred in the medical system or in high-level government organizations. The majority of leakers were regular employees or junior staff members rather than temporary workers or senior managers. Family WeChat groups were the primary route for disclosure; the forwarding of documents was the main method of divulgence, while taking screenshots and pictures made up a comparatively smaller portion.

CONCLUSIONS

We propose the following suggestions: restricting the authority of nonmedical institutions and low-level government agencies to collect data, strengthening training for low-level employees on privacy protection, and restricting the flow of data on social media through technical measures.