As part of increased efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19 in Singapore, the government announced the launch of a new TraceTogether contact tracing device and an updated version of the existing TraceTogether app. These new developments may have left you a bit confused or even a little concerned about privacy issues.
Why use TraceTogether?
Digital tools like these will reduce the time it takes to trace the close contacts of a Covid-19 infected person to less than a day, compared with two to three days using manual methods.
The token will also allow people, such as children and the elderly, who may not have smartphones or the latest models of smartphones, to participate in digital contact tracing.
Currently, people have to download the TraceTogether app on their smartphones, which cannot be more than five years old or use an older operating system.
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For digital contact tracing to be effective, Singapore needs to drive up participation rate to more than 75 per cent, from the current 25 per cent, Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative Vivian Balakrishnan said at a multi-ministry task force virtual news conference on Monday (June 8).
The boost is crucial in the current post-circuit breaker period as more of us return to our physical place of work, more domestic business activities start again and Singapore mulls over allowing cross-border travel for work to resume.
The updated app was released last week and the TraceTogether Token will be issued in the later half of June. To address some of your concerns, here are six key things to know:
The new token will function in a similar way to the existing TraceTogether app.
Short-range wireless Bluetooth signals emitting from the token will be exchanged with nearby devices, which could be another token or a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone with the TraceTogether app.
The exchange will be logged in encrypted form in both the device and app, with data older than 25 days erased automatically.
The data will not be uploaded to a central server by default.
One key question you may be asking is whether the government is using TraceTogether to track citizens’ whereabouts. Simply put, the TraceTogether Token and app do not collect location data. The token does not even have any mobile connectivity to enable such tracking.
Plus, the data logs stay in the phone or the token until the user is confirmed to be a Covid-19 patient. The Ministry of Health (MOH) will then ask for the token to be handed over to extract exchange logs for contact tracing. Smartphone users will be guided to remotely upload data logs in the TraceTogether app to MOH.
You don’t have to use the TraceTogether tools is you don’t wish to. But it’s important to note that while use of the app and token is currently voluntary, refusing to cooperate with the health authorities, like sharing data logs, is an offence under the Infectious Diseases Act.
You might be asking: can the TraceTogether token or app detect when social distancing is not observed, and result in users being prosecuted?
While Bluetooth devices can detect proximity by signal strength readings, the authorities have assured people that the logs will be used only for contact tracing, nothing more.
“There is no intention to use a TraceTogether app or TraceTogether Token as a means of picking up breaches of existing rules,” Dr Balakrishnan said on Monday (June 8).
The NRIC number helps speed up and ensure accurate contact tracing by allowing greater inter-operability with the Government’s visitor check-in system SafeEntry.
For instance, contact tracers can identify the close contacts of confirmed Covid-19 patients by their NRIC numbers and locate their home address, even if their phone numbers change or their phones are switched off.
Short-term visitors will be required to enter their passport details – name, passport number, birth date and nationality – into the app as well. Others, including work pass and Dependant’s Pass holders, can also have their relevant information captured by the digital system more accurately.
If you’re worried about whether your data will be protected, you’ll be glad to know that all public-sector data protection rules will apply to the data held by MOH. These rules include purging data from the central database or retaining data in an anonymised form when it is no longer required for contact tracing.
People who suspect data breaches by government agencies can “blow the whistle” by completing a form on the Smart Nation website.
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A version of this article first appeared in The Straits Times.