TraceTogether Application to Help Contact Tracing

In light of the increasing cases of Covid-19 cases in Singapore, contact-tracing efforts have intensified in hopes to identify unknown clusters and determine links between cases.

The Singapore government has launched the TraceTogether application which was developed by the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) in collaboration with MOH. The application allow us to play our part as individuals in the community to help in the contact tracing process through enabling our Bluetooth and location permissions in our smartphone devices.

 Source: Goody Feed

The application functions by exchanging short-distance Bluetooth signals between phones of other users who are in close proximity for 30 minutes. Close proximity is defined as anywhere between a two metres radius up to five metres.

These records will be stored in the users’ phone and authorities will only request for such information through their investigations when they identify a potential case of contracting the virus. Should an individual refuse, they may be prosecuted under the Infectious Diseases Act.

The application is believed to enhance the contact tracing process as contact tracing relies on the memory of interviewees at present stage. Some of the interviewees may not be able to recall all their contacts or people whom they have interacted with and this will slow down the process of contact tracing. As time is of essence in this process, the contact tracing application will speed up the process since interviewees will have their location and contact with other individuals stored in their phones.

Several users have expressed concerns over their privacy with the application. The government has assured the community that the application has several layers of security and privacy safeguards in place. Users are only required to submit their phone numbers upon downloading the application and each phone will then be assigned a user ID to generate temporary IDs at regular intervals that is exchanged between the phones of other TraceTogether users. According to GovTech, this protects users from eavesdropping and tracking overtime by malicious actors.

TraceTogether also does not collect the users’ names or other personal details stored in the users’ phone such as location. It cannot identify the location of exposure as it only identifies potential links and connections to other individuals. The location can only be established by contact tracers during interviews.

Members of the public are urged to download the TraceTogether application to help in speeding up the contact tracing process and to curb the spread of the virus within the community. By downloading the application, we will be able to do our parts as individuals in the society and help the government in this period of uncertainty.