@Article{info:doi/10.2196/51219,
author="Wang, Zhong
and Hu, Fangru
and Su, Jie
and Lin, Yuyao",
title="Information Source Characteristics of Personal Data Leakage During the COVID-19 Pandemic in China: Observational Study",
journal="JMIR Med Inform",
year="2024",
month="Dec",
day="10",
volume="12",
pages="e51219",
keywords="public health emergency; privacy leakage; characteristics of information sources; COVID-19; China; information source; data privacy; public health; leakage",
abstract="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. ",
issn="2291-9694",
doi="10.2196/51219",
url="https://medinform.jmir.org/2024/1/e51219",
url="https://doi.org/10.2196/51219"
}