While the Hong Kong government has the capacity to quickly roll out and enforce a program like LeaveHomeSafe, technological sophistication alone is not sufficient for fostering public trust and support for policy agendas. The app may be long deleted on everyone’s phones, but its ghost lives on in the tenuous level of trust many people have in government technology. This challenge is not technical but political. Can Hong Kong be a leader in technology-enabled governance models that also satisfy public concerns and expectations? The AI era is a good opportunity for the city to excel in not only technology innovation but also its application and governance.

https://thediplomat.com/2025/10/lessons-in-ai-trust-from-hong-kongs-leave-homesafe-mobile-app/

Hartley, Kris. (2025). “Lessons in AI trust from Hong Kong’s LeaveHomeSafe mobile app.” The Diplomat, 3 Oct.