Beijing: In recent months, people in China have started complaining about state surveillance methods, which were implemented after the COVID-19 to monitor spread of infections, being re-engineered to invade into their private lives for non-health, non-Covid purposes, according to a media report.

In Hangzhou, for instance, the people protested when the officials wanted to use the surveillance app for post-pandemic activities like mapping people's lifestyles, reported The Hong Kong Post.

The Communist regime's surveillance program has become so massive that it is able to shape and even force behaviours en masse, concerning aspects of the new normal in China.

China also has eight of the world's 10 most surveilled cities based on the number of cameras per 1,000 people, according to UK-based technology research firm Comparitech. But now the pandemic has brought surveillance cameras closer to people's private lives: from public spaces in the city right to the front doors of their homes -- and in some rare cases, surveillance cameras inside their apartments, according to The Hong Kong Post.

The use of surveillance cameras for COVID-19 data began in China through a digital health code system. It was used to control people's movements and decide who should go into quarantine, enforce home quarantine, and identify violators, said the publication.

However, the health codes have been hacked multiple times even the hackers have been targeting celebrities by publishing the photos and selfies they used for their biometric identity verification.

In some cities, officials suggested turning the equipment into a security tool from a health service by searching for people who could not be found through traditional methods.