Activist Agnes Chow said her identity had been used to register for Hong Kong’s city-wide COVID-19 testing scheme, and questioned official participation figures released by the government as unreliable.

Chow posted on Facebook on Thursday that she received a text message from the government which said her Hong Kong identity card number was used to register for the Universal Community Testing Programme. She was told to go to the Tai Kok Tsui Sports Centre on Friday for testing.

Chow said this was strange as she did not register for the scheme. “Perhaps 1.3 billion people have registered for the tests,” she said, in a reference to mainland China’s population.

There were 260 cases of personal information being used by others to register for the tests, Secretary for Civil Service Patrick Nip told Commercial Radio on Thursday. Of those, 144 cases were reported to the police for misuse of others' personal information.

A resident identified as Leung told Apple Daily that she did not register for the tests but had received six text messages from the government since Aug. 31 containing identity card numbers of herself and her mother. She said she felt confused as the messages did not stop even after she cancelled the registration online.

Leung said she was shocked and worried because no relatives knew their personal details, and the people who misused their data even knew which district they lived in. Only the government would have those details, she said.

“I feel my privacy is gone and I feel threatened,” she said. “The government is so shameful to manipulate the test numbers. No one will ever trust this government again.”

As of Thursday evening, the government said 1.5 million people had been tested under the scheme, of which 1.3 million made appointments online. The tests revealed 21 confirmed COVID-19 cases. The government estimates could be up to 100 undiscovered patients in the community.

Nip said up to 47% of participants who went to testing centers on Wednesday did not make prior registrations, and the government would cut online registration quotas in response.

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