Although They Haven't Left, the 'Beep Beep' Sound Goes Off Constantly... Citizens Express Anxiety Over Self-Quarantine App Errors

Frequent Information Errors Anger Citizens
Stronger Penalties for Unauthorized Departure Increase Anxiety
Health Center Staff and Police Also Dispatched
'Constant Calls' Draw Complaints from Officials

Warning message for leaving the quarantine location in the 'Self-Quarantine Safety Protection' app

[Asia Economy Reporters Donghoon Jeong and Jeongyun Lee] The application (app) introduced to track the location of COVID-19 self-quarantined individuals is causing increasing public dissatisfaction due to frequent location information errors.

According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and those with self-quarantine experience on the 3rd, the 'Self-Quarantine Safety Protection' app, introduced in March to monitor self-quarantined individuals, has been found to frequently produce GPS (Global Positioning System) location information errors. As a result, quarantine authorities often mistakenly identify compliant individuals as having left quarantine without permission. There have even been cases where police or public health center staff have been dispatched for on-site inspections.

Kim Kyung-min (alias, 26), who was under self-quarantine last month, appealed for urgent app improvements. Kim said, "I did not step outside my home at all, but alarms saying 'Please confirm if you have left the quarantine location' ring day and night," adding, "There was an occasion when I missed a call from the public health center, and then public health center staff and police came to my home."

In the 'Self-Quarantine Safety Protection' app, an alert message appears if there is no movement for a certain period of time.

They especially feel significant concern about disadvantages caused by app errors as penalties for unauthorized departure have been strengthened. Violating self-quarantine rules such as leaving the quarantine location can result in imprisonment for up to one year or a fine of up to 10 million won under the Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Act. According to an analysis of Ministry of the Interior and Safety data by Kang Ki-yoon of the United Future Party, as of the 26th of last month, there were a total of 63,975 self-quarantined individuals nationwide.

Another self-quarantine experiencer, Song So-hye (33), said, "A message saying 'No movement detected for a certain period, notification will be sent to the person in charge' kept appearing, so I had no choice but to keep watching my phone," adding, "With penalties also strengthened, I was overwhelmed by anxiety along with fear of COVID-19 infection."

Main Screen of the Self-Quarantine Safety Protection Application

Public officials who are assigned one-on-one to monitor self-quarantined individuals also express complaints. They have to frequently confirm by phone and conduct on-site inspections due to frequent errors. This means that monitoring duties caused by errors are added on top of their original work. A public official A from a district office in Seoul said, "It is difficult because we have to keep confirming by phone and also go on-site," adding, "Other district office employees also express similar grievances."

Many comments from public officials lamenting app errors appear in the review section evaluating the 'Self-Quarantine Dedicated Public Official' app. One commenter wrote, "When an exit alarm went off and I called, the self-quarantined person said 'I did not leave the house' and verbally abused me extensively," adding, "Whether public officials or self-quarantined individuals, it feels like everyone is going crazy because of app errors."

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety explained that GPS information is received based on telecom base stations, and incorrect location information is sometimes received, causing errors. A ministry official said, "To improve app errors, we applied a 'Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS)' that recognizes nearby Wi-Fi to verify location information," adding, "(This technology) has been introduced in the Android app but cannot be applied to the iPhone app, so errors seem to be more frequent among iPhone users. We will continuously work to improve errors and other issues."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.