Covid19: Workers’ Party Gerald Giam Criticises PAP’s Insistence To Implement TraceTogether

The Workers' Party politician Gerald Giam blogged about PAP's plans to roll out TraceTogether Tokens to all Singaporeans. If the PAP pushes its way through, an estimated 5.7 million residents in Singapore will be marked with a contact tracing device which will cost taxpayers over $100 million. However, TraceTogether has continually faced compatibility issues especially with iPhones.

Other First World countries which tried to develop their own contact tracing apps have also faced similar compatibility issues. To overcome these issues, Apple and Google have developed their own contact tracing protocol called Exposure Notifications. While the PAP stubbornly insists on developing and implementing its TraceTogether project, at least 22 countries have now switched to using Exposure Notifications.

Gerald Giam questioned why the PAP is wasting over $100 million to develop TraceTogether Tokens when a ready and effective Exposure Notifications solution has been created by the Tech Giants. Exposure Notifications will not only reduce the drain on handphone batteries, it can also have cross-border interoperability when travellers go overseas or arrive in Singapore.

Since 91% of Singaporeans already have a smartphone, Exposure Notifications can easily be implemented to the bulk of Singaporeans. The PAP can continue to issue its reprogrammed Exposure-Notifications-compatible Tokens to the remaining 9% of Singaporeans. This move will easily save taxpayers over $100 million.

One can only imagine why the PAP continues to insist using its failed pet project TraceTogether.