Extraordinary Endeavors in Turbulent Times: Asian Innovation, Inclusion, and Impact during COVID-19

ASIA BUSINESS COUNCIL HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 4 1 Fubon Group (Taiwan) Extraordinary Endeavors in Turbulent Times At Taiwan Mobile, around 20 to 30 of its employees worked closely on IEFS, while close to a thousand people worked on it on a more extended basis, since engineers were needed to make sure that all of the cell towers, which were used to locate individuals, were functioning as expected. Utilizing “Blocks” of 200 Meters by 200 Meters One of the unique features of the IEFS is the lower precision in tracking a subject’s whereabouts because it utilizes “blocks” rather than the Global Positioning System (GPS). Lin contends that this raises fewer privacy concerns and results in higher effectiveness. “The system works by dividing cities into 200 by 200 meter ‘blocks’ and locating each subject within a block by triangulating their position using nearby cell towers,” Lin explained. “Whenever the subject, or more specifically, his or her phone, leaves the block, the local authorities are notified. This way of tracking a subject’s location is less precise because no alarm is raised so long as the subject stays within the ‘block,’” he continued. Since any given subject will not know the exact boundaries of the “block,” which also means that they do not know how far they can travel before the authorities are notified, Lin believes that fewer people will take the risk. It also appeared unlikely that people would want to leave their house without their phone. Finally, Lin says, “We trust that the Taiwanese people will comply with the law, even if they are aware that loopholes exist.” Having said that, in a scenario where a subject is detected to be outside his or her “block,” the telecom carrier would notify both central and local government officials, who would send representatives to check up on the individual. And if the suspicions were confirmed, the carrier would send the subject’s rough locational data to the government so that they could track him or her down and make the individual return to the quarantine site. Taiwan Mobile engineers worked closely to improve the accuracy of IEFS system