Opinion | Does the take-up of Singapore’s TraceTogether really show increased trust in the government?

Using the app or token was about entering into the government’s proffered bargain, as its messaging was that restrictions would be lifted only after its 70 per cent target was hit

More data is required to assess TraceTogether’s effectiveness, and before it can be held up as a model to be used elsewhere, writes Hallam Stevens

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A staff member from Singapore’s Government Technology Agency demonstrates the TraceTogether contact-tracing app. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:00am, 31 Dec 2020Updated: 10:05am, 31 Dec 2020

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to tear through communities in the United States and Europe, Singapore appears, by contrast, a veritable utopia. The large-scale outbreak among migrant workers that shocked the city is now definitively under control. Almost all of the island nation’s new cases are imported from overseas. And, most remarkably, the total number of Covid-19-related deaths remains under 30.

This success can be attributed to several factors: a well-coordinated government response; effective quarantining of imported cases; enforced rules for social distancing and mask-wearing; and a state-of-the-art medical system. The Singapore government also touts its contact-tracing scheme – its ability to rapidly track down close contacts of known cases – as the centrepiece of its viral-control strategy. There is no doubt that contact tracing has played an important role, especially in the early days of the pandemic as the virus spread within the community.

Since then, Singapore has supplemented its “manual” contact tracing – using interviews, credit-card transactions, and hotel and transport records – with its TraceTogether digital system, which consists of an app and the later addition of a “wearable” token. The token uses Bluetooth technology to exchange unique identifiers with other nearby devices, thereby building up a data set of an individual’s close contacts. In the event of a positive Covid-19 test, data from an individual’s token would be uploaded by Singapore’s Ministry of Health to assist with contact tracing. Although data about an individual initially remains on the device, this close contact or “social” data represents a brand-new kind of personal data collection.

The Singapore government has touted the TraceTogether system as the key to reopening the country’s society and economy. It set the target of 70 per cent uptake of the token (or the equivalent smartphone app) among the population. Over the Christmas period, as this target was reached, commentators have declared the success of Singapore’s model. An article in this publication argues that early privacy concerns – and some resistance to TraceTogether, including a petition signed by over 50,000 residents – have now been overcome.

Office workers wearing protective face masks walk in Singapore's central business district. Photo: Reuters

However, there are good reasons to think that the long queues for the TraceTogether token may not in fact indicate an increased trust in Singapore’s government or its methods. The primary messaging around the token has indicated that the government would not lift bans on social gatherings and other restrictions until its 70 per cent target was reached. As a headline in The Straits Times proclaimed earlier this month, the easing of restrictions was unlikely “unless more use TraceTogether”. Picking up the token, or using the app, was not about trusting the government, but about entering into their proffered bargain.

The government has also made it clear that, ultimately, use of TraceTogether will be all but compulsory. Although it appears to be stopping short of making the technology mandatory, it has announced that as the distribution of the tokens nears completion, some form of TraceTogether, either app or token, will be necessary to enter shopping centres, cinemas, supermarkets, shops, and other public places.

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