%0 Journal Article
%@ 2291-9694
%I JMIR Publications
%V 12
%N 
%P e51219
%T Information Source Characteristics of Personal Data Leakage During the COVID-19 Pandemic in China: Observational Study
%A Wang,Zhong
%A Hu,Fangru
%A Su,Jie
%A Lin,Yuyao
%K public health emergency
%K privacy leakage
%K characteristics of information sources
%K COVID-19
%K China
%K information source
%K data privacy
%K public health
%K leakage
%D 2024
%7 10.12.2024
%9 
%J JMIR Med Inform
%G English
%X 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. 
%R 10.2196/51219
%U https://medinform.jmir.org/2024/1/e51219
%U https://doi.org/10.2196/51219