A couple of days ago, Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Tan dropped a bombshell: the Singapore Police Force (SPF) can extract TraceTogether data for criminal investigations.
Residents were understandably displeased with this new information, as they were previously told that TraceTogether data that is older than 25 days will automatically be deleted and it’s only used for COVID-19 contact tracing.
Unless you’re a criminal, that is.
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We now know that our TraceTogether data can be used for criminal investigations, and it seems that that has already been done once.
So Far, TraceTogether Data Has Been Used for 1 Criminal Case
Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday (5 Jan), Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan confirmed that TraceTogether data has already been used by the police once.
It was used in a murder investigation.
After Mr Desmond Tan’s stunning revelation on the same day, Dr Balakrishnan explained why he previously told the public that TraceTogether data would only be used for contact tracing.
Dr Balakrishnan, also Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation initiative, said he had not thought about the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) when he made that guarantee.
He only remembered that CPC had the authority to extract the data after CPC made an application to TraceTogether data a few weeks ago.
This, he said, led to many sleepless nights.
“Frankly, and I think members know me well, and I am always very frank… Frankly, I had not thought of the CPC when I spoke earlier,” he said.
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After finding out about CPC’s application to TraceTogether data, Dr Balakrishnan initially planned to persuade Parliament to change the law, but later decided against it, after speaking to his colleagues.
In addressing the concerns of residents, he also pointed out that other forms of sensitive data, such as phone or banking records, are also subjected to the same provision of the CPC.
So basically, it’s not just TraceTogether: everything in your phone can be extracted for the investigations.
As for TraceTogether, the police can only obtain data once a suspect or person involved in or assisting in criminal investigations has handed over their smartphone or TraceTogether token.
Data Will Only Be Used in Very Serious Offences
In response to Dr Balakrishnan, Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh asked under what circumstances the police would extract TraceTogether data.
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Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam answered that such data usage is “pretty much restricted to very serious offences.”
So don’t worry; the police won’t ask for your TraceTogether token after seeing that you’ve just jaywalked.
Mr Shanmugam gave the example of a murder case, saying how the police would be inclined to use all the tools at their disposal to solve the case, including TraceTogether data.
“Let’s say there is a murder… and information is available on a TraceTogether token. If the police chose not to seek that information, you can imagine how the victims’ family and indeed the rest of Singapore might react to that situation,” he said.
Those who have worries about this new provision will be happy to know that once the pandemic dies down, the government will “most happily and cheerfully” stand down the TraceTogether programme.
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The only question that remains is: when will the pandemic end?
You might want to watch this video to the end to understand how TraceTogether works (and please subscribe to our YouTube channel for more informative videos!):
Featured Image: Ascannio / Shutterstock.com
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