The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of 2019 has posed a considerable challenge to countries around the world over the past few years, with different countries adopting different control measures depending on their national circumstances. China created the health code(registering personal information to receive online health codes in different colors, green: free access; yellow: restricted access to some areas and one-week home quarantine; and red: restricted travel and 14 days of intensive medical quarantine) during the COVID-19 pandemic, which had a positive impact on collecting epidemic information and controlling the virus’ spread. However, at the same time, an incident in which a bank in Henan Province, China, privately turned depositors’ health codes to red to prevent them from withdrawing money reflects the misuse of health code. Data governance technology is an important tool for future economic development and social governance, so the problem of deviation in data governance policy implementation, represented by the misuse of health codes, needs to be emphasized. Based on the Smith policy-implementation-processing pattern, this study created an analytical framework for data governance policy implementation and examined 274 questionnaires, 56 transcripts of interviews, and 29 policy texts. The study finds that all Chinese respondents used the health code during the COVID-19 pandemic. 61.31% of the respondents believed that health codes were misused in China’s pandemic control. More than 60% of the respondents believe that the way and scope of data collection of health code are unreasonable and lack effective supervision and regulation. More than 56% of the respondents believe that government departments lack the awareness of protecting the public’s information, and don’t effectively regulate the operation of the health code. More than 70% of respondents believe that health code platforms don’t strictly manage the public’s information. Most respondents have insufficient awareness and ability to protect personal information, and lack awareness of protecting their rights. China’s political, economic, and cultural environments also contribute to the alienation of health code policy implementation. In an era when data technology is increasingly integrated into the country’s governance and people’s life, it is important to regulate all types of data technology governance policies and tools by strengthening the legal system.