Tag Archives: privacy

It's 2021 and we have no choice over our own homes. Is that ok?

If the minister truly regrets his mistake, he should come clean, apologise and bow to Singaporeans before resigning. Only by doing so can Vivian Balakrishnan prove to citizens that he is taking "full responsibility" for the TraceTogether mess.

Singaporeans who were concerned about using TraceTogether because it might possibly violate their data privacy have been proven right all along!

The state media recently interviewed a lawyer who said people caught tampering with their devices are liable for jail under Singapore's wide array of laws.

The Covid19 multi-ministry taskforce announced that by end-Dec 2020, the public can no longer gain entry into popular venues by scanning SafeEntry QR codes or their NRIC barcodes. The government will be making it compulsory for members of the public to check in using the TraceTogether app or token instead.

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. 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.

Government Technology Agency (GovTech) announced it had awarded a $6 million tender to a Singapore-based electronics maker PCI Pte Ltd to manufacture TraceTogether Tokens. The $6 million dollars will be used to supply an initial 300,000 dongles, worth about $20 each. The first batch of Token should be delivered in the second half of June 2020. If the PAP successfully pushes through with its plan to tag every Singaporean, PCI Limited stands to gain access to a business potentially worth more than $110 million once Tokens are made for all 5.7 million residents.

In a renewed attempt to implement this failed TraceTogether project, the government recently announced that Singaporeans will be issued with a wearable contact-tracing device. Minister of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Vivian Balakrishnan tried to reassure that the device only uses Bluetooth technology to exchange proximity information between devices. He claims there is no GPS in the token and it will not track users' locations. Yet again this proposed token faced mounting concerns about privacy and surveillance. Among those voices was journalist Kirsten Han who came up with various questions about the token.

The Ministry of Health and GovTech recently launched an app TraceTogether to help with contact tracing for the COVID-19 pandemic happening in Singapore. In the event TraceTogether users test positive for COVID-19, they are legally obliged to share their data logs with contact tracers. There is uncertainty what the data logs look like. It is also worth noting that personal information can be extrapolated from anonymised data, by using other tracing methods such as CCTV footage and interviews.

What he did was wrong and he has disappointed his family. My family and I would like to kindly request to the general public to stop sharing our family pictures as it is causing great distress to our family. Please understand that some of our siblings are still young and need to be protected from being cyberbullied. They are not to be blamed for the conduct of their brother.