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William Yiu

An instructor at Hong Kong’s second-oldest university has faced a backlash over asking students to use mainland Chinese messaging app WeChat to register their attendance and keep its location services enabled, before later saying the arrangement was optional.
The policy was revealed after a screenshot of an email from a teaching staff member in the information engineering department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) was posted to the social media platform Threads on Friday.
“Starting from the next class, attendance will be recorded by scanning a QR code through WeChat. Please install the WeChat app and enable location services before coming to class,” the email said.
“Your attendance will be considered valid only if your location is detected within the classroom, such as CUHK faculty of law, CUHK Library Road, CUHK Lee Shau Kee Building.”
It added that a test QR code had been provided to students to ensure the app was working properly.
The post attracted hundreds of replies and was forwarded thousands of times.
Some students questioned online why the department had not adopted the university’s own app for checking student attendance.

A spokeswoman for CUHK said a part-time instructor for one class had asked students to record their attendance using a non-official system on his own initiative.
“After becoming aware of the incident, the relevant academic department immediately reminded the instructor to use the university’s official systems instead,” she said.
Other users also criticised the department and staff for using an app other than CUHK’s to track attendance and raised concerns about potential data leaks.
“Am I studying in mainland China now or what?” the author of the post, nemui._.desuyo, wrote.
The user wrote that he had already sent an email to the department to follow up on the matter and ask why it had not adopted the CUHK-developed app instead.
“How can they force us to install a third-party app just for taking attendance? Who’s going to be responsible if there’s a security breach?” another commenter said.
A user named iireneliui wrote: “CUHK has its own attendance system, plus card readers to tap student IDs. Or worst-case scenario, just use a plain old sign-in sheet. Why on earth do we have to use WeChat?”
The department later sent an email to students clarifying that they could use either WeChat or sign a paper attendance sheet in class.
“You only need to use one of these two methods. If you do not normally use WeChat, there is no need to install it just to record your attendance,” the email stated.
However, the email said students would still need to enable location services if they chose to use WeChat.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data said it had not received any inquiries or complaints about the matter, adding that it would not comment on individual cases.
The privacy watchdog also said personal data should only be collected for lawful purposes directly related to a function or activity by the relevant organisation, provided the information was “necessary, adequate but not excessive”.


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Department later clarifies rule after students raise privacy concerns over using mainland app and location tracking to register class attendance


Department later clarifies rule after students raise privacy concerns over using mainland app and location tracking to register class attendance.


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CUHK instructor triggers backlash over WeChat attendance registration policy

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Department later clarifies rule after students raise privacy concerns over using mainland app and location tracking to register class attendance

Department later clarifies rule after students raise privacy concerns over using mainland app and location tracking to register class attendance