The Thai government said on Tuesday that reports that its coronavirus response center was sharing mobile tracking data with the Ministry of Defense were true but added that it was not intruding into user’s private data.
There had been earlier reports that the government was using the defense ministry to help track the location of coronavirus patients and places they may have visited.
In order to do so, the government would have to share user data with the army.
“It is a completely voluntary program with patients giving us their phone number so that we can track their former location,” said Takorn Tantasith, the Secretary-General of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, in a television interview on the government’s MCOT network.
“Rest assured that we are only checking location, we cannot look at the data without a court order.”
According to Takorn, generals from the army, as well as the NBTC sit on the committee that is in charge of sharing data and managing the situation.
“We have very strict regulations, the sharing of private data could result in a five-year jail term for officials.”
Document circulating
A leaked document has been circulating on social media for the past few days which detailed the surveillance program including cooperation between the main telecom companies in Thailand and the government in accessing user data.
The document in question predates the government’s ‘Thai Chana’ tracking application by a month. It was also confirmed as real by General Raksak Rotpaphan of the defense ministry.
According to Raksak, the document stems from an internal meeting held by the government which discussed ways that the government could track coronavirus patients.
Raksak said that the government was relying on the technical expertise of the defense ministry in tracking mobile phone users.
Dissidents
The revelation that the army was involved in the data tracking of Thai citizens comes amid public furor over the disappearance of anti-junta activist Wanchalearm Satsakit who was living in self-exile in Cambodia.
Wanchalearm was kidnapped while on the phone with his sister on Thursday by unknown perpetrators in Phnom Penh.
Protesters in Bangkok, on Monday, pointed a finger at Prayut Chan-ocha and the military as playing a role in the disappearance of Wanchalearm. Many online have questioned whether the army was tracking dissidents abroad through mobile data.
