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Singapore’s foreign minister says the government wants to avoid “a false dichotomy” between a Big Brother type centralised system and a free-for-all decentralised system for its contact tracing app. Photo: AFP

Singapore aims to keep coronavirus contact tracing app voluntary, considers other devices

  • Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said public trust, respecting privacy and voluntary participation are key to the success of the TraceTogether app
  • Singapore is looking into other contact tracing devices, such as a dongle that could boost participation by mitigating the loss of phone battery life
Singapore’s contact-tracing phone app, TraceTogether, will remain voluntary for “as long as possible”, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said.

“It is a hybrid system based on public support, keeping public trust, and maintaining privacy,” Balakrishnan said.

“I think it is very important to have those features, because otherwise contact tracing will not work,” the minister said in an interview with Sky News Australia.

Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan. Photo: AP

About 1.5 million residents have downloaded the app, or between 20 and 25 per cent of the city state’s population, he said.

Officials are considering other contact tracing devices, such as a dongle that could boost participation by mitigating the loss of phone battery life since the phone app runs on Bluetooth technology, said Balakrishnan.

“Maintaining trust, respecting privacy and getting voluntary participation is absolutely essential,” he said.

The government wants to “avoid a false dichotomy, between a completely centralised government system where Big Brother knows it all, or a decentralised anonymous system where it is a free-for-all, and no one really has an overall view of the data,” he said.

That’s why the app was offered as open-source for mass testing, and why the data is “locked up and encrypted in the person’s own handphone, until and unless he or she turns positive”.

A food stall vendor looks at his phone in Singapore. Photo: AFP

Singapore is on the verge of ending a “circuit breaker” period that limited business operations and consumer mobility, with measures slightly eased from June 2.

Until Friday, the city state had reported more than 30,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 23 deaths – a relatively low count compared with global peers.

Why aren’t Singapore residents using the TraceTogether contact-tracing app?

“I think we are well on our way to recovery,” Balakrishnan said in the interview, highlighting “very low mortality rates” at less than 0.1 per cent, high quality of health care, and extensive testing.

“We have used this time to build up medical capacity, contact tracing and isolation capacity. And we have accelerated our ability to be able to trace at scale,” he said.

“All these elements – medical capacity, contact tracing and testing – are essential prerequisites for an effective and safe opening up,” Balakrishnan said. “The human being remains at the centre of this entire process.”

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