In Singapore, the pandemic response has been largely technology-based – two systems to be precise. The first is a QR code that became ubiquitous across the country in April and May as part of the “SafeEntry” contact tracking system. SafeEntry meant that anyone who wants to enter a public place – restaurants, shops, malls – had to scan in and register with their name, ID or passport number and telephone number. If someone tests positive for COVID – 19, contact tracing authorities use the program to see who has gotten close to each other in the same place and potentially got infected. The second system is “TraceTogether”, an app that was released in March 2020.
It uses Bluetooth to record close contacts: If two users are in the vicinity, their devices exchange anonymized and encrypted user IDs. However, they can be deciphered by the Ministry of Health as soon as a person tests positive for the coronavirus. If you can’t (or don’t want to) use the smartphone app, the government will give you a TraceTogether token, small digital tags, so to speak, that serve the same purpose and that you should carry with you. Although TraceTogether is currently still voluntary, the government has already announced that they want to merge the system with SafeEntry – so it would be mandatory to either download the app or carry it with you for a day. Otherwise there would be nowhere to be in the public (closed) space, i.e. not even doing the weekly shopping.
When the two systems were started, there wasn’t much room for the public to raise concerns: the tech was seen as necessary for pandemic control and the Singapore government behaved in its usual hierarchical manner. She tried to alleviate fears. However, it did so by assuring residents that the data collected using this technology would only be used to trace contacts in the context of the pandemic. And that was, as it now turns out, wrong.
Police use private data beginning of the During the year it became clear that the government’s allegation was incorrect. The Ministry of Interior confirmed that the data could be viewed by the police for criminal investigation; a day after the announcement, a minister revealed that the contact tracing information had in fact been used in a homicide investigation. It quickly became clear that – earlier allegations by the minister – Singapore law had allowed law enforcement agencies to use the TraceTogether data from the start. Not because people in Singapore are particularly careful about privacy – in fact, state surveillance is largely considered normal in the country – but because people had the impression that they were baited under the wrong conditions. Many raised concerns when TraceTogether was first released – and the app wasn’t widely adopted until the government indicated an imminent duty. (According to a statement by a CEO of the Corona Taskforce, almost 80 percent of the population have taken over TraceTogether.)
Meanwhile, the government has announced that it will introduce a new law to limit the use of contact tracing data by law enforcement agencies to specific offenses, including terrorism, murder, kidnapping and particularly serious cases of drug trafficking. “We acknowledge our error not to have indicated that the data from TraceTogether are not exempted from the law enforcement process,” said the “Smart Nation and Digital Governance” office in a statement. The new law, it says there, “will specify that personal data obtained through contact tracing … may only be used for these specific purposes of contact tracing, unless there is a clear and urgent need to use this data for criminal investigations to use serious crimes “.
The wind has turned There are no schedule stating when the proposed law will be presented to parliament and details are few. “In Singapore, where the law gives civil servants great executive and legislative power, I welcome any commitment to accountability and restraint,” said digital rights activist Lee Yi Ting. “It will have to be seen whether this law will be seriously mandatory in order to enforce these proposed restrictions. For example, the question arises of what happens if civil servants disregard these rules – which investigative bodies then come into play and what are the consequences for civil servants ? ”
Some have doubts about the usefulness of this data for police investigations and express concern that the proposed restrictions will now formally allow the use of the data beyond pandemic-related contact tracing. “We would like to reiterate that the expansion of police powers with a view to -Data does not correspond to the original request for which the data collection was intended, “said the opposition Progress Singapore Party in a statement.” The data on corona contact tracking may only and exclusively be used to fight the pandemic and for nothing else. ”
Trust is at stake This game of confusion turns into a delicate one Concerns that governments may abuse contact tracing systems have grown around the world, and some of the concerns have been found to be unjustified, especially in countries using Google and Apple’s warning system technology – which do not allow local authorities to do so The Singapore government had previously rejected Apple and Google’s system on the grounds that it was “less effective” in the case of Singapore, while digital systems can speed up contact tracing and help with that, i Fighting the virus – which will become more important than ever over time – has struggled many countries to implement it. One major problem: a lack of trust among the population.
Lee fears that the handling in Singapore could now have serious international repercussions, even if the law manages to appease the population. Because the country began using digital contact tracing early on, it has taken global leadership at this point. And the system on which TraceTogether is based is used in many other nations – although there is no evidence that the same legislative errors were committed elsewhere. Still: “It is very important to Singapore’s citizens to what extent the state encroaches on their private lives,” says Lee. And, she adds, the country is setting an international precedent “normalizing it for repressive governments to use contact tracing data for the purposes they define”.
The original version of this article was supported by the “Pandemic Technology Project” of the Rockefeller Foundation.
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