Wearable Contact Tracing Device Might Be Ready by Next Week; Not Compulsory to Use It Yet

So you’ve signed the petition to reject the wearable contact tracing device that’ll be given to everyone in Singapore.

Well, too late. Not that signing it would work anyway.

The device is so ready, your grandparents could be wearing it next week.

Wearable Contact Tracing Device Might Be Ready by Next Week;  Will Be Given to People With No Smartphone First

Usually, in a virtual press conference by the multi-ministry task force set to fight COVID-19, it comprises the face of COVID-19 National Development Minister Lawrence Wong, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong and Ministry of Health director of medical services Associate Professor Kenneth Mak. Sometimes, Manpower Minister Josephine Teo would join in to talk about the dormitory situation.

Today, there’s a new guest:

Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan was there, and it’s not because there’s some development about people living outside of Singapore.

Dr Balakrishnan is also the Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative, so he’s responsible for the wearable contact tracing device, which now has a name: it’s called the TraceTogether token.

Seems like Ah Gong has lost its creativity in naming stuff.

The 59-year-old grandfather who looks less than 30 years old was there to talk about the TraceTogether token after people expressed concern about its privacy.

For a start, the device is set to be delivered in the second half of June…which is like next week.

It’ll first be given to people who don’t have a smartphone, and will be distributed like how masks are distributed.

If you’re here to check out how it looks like, you’d be disappointed because no prototype is shown.

However, more info about the device is revealed.

Not a Tracking Device

Dr Balakrishnan has to highlight this a few million times: the TraceTogether token is not a tracking device.

He said, “So here’s where I need to emphasise, and repeatedly emphasise, it is not a tracking device. It is not an electronic tag, as some Internet commentaries have fretted about. In particular, and here to be technical, there is no GPS chip on the device. There isn’t even any Internet or mobile telephone connectivity.”

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In other words, it won’t know where you’ve been to. It’ll just capture data if you’ve been close to someone else with the device or the app and save that data in the device.

It’s only when you’ve been in close contact with someone with COVID-19 that the data will be retrieved. He added, “And that data never leaves the device or the phone. It is encrypted. It is stored for up to 25 days and automatically deleted.”

By the way, the app TraceTogether works the same way.

Not Compulsory to Use It…Yet

At this moment, there’s no plan to make the wearing of the device or usage of the app compulsory…yet.

Dr Balakrishnan said, “I’m going to do my best to try and push the participation rates up without having to go down the mandatory route.”

However.

The future might be different.

He added, “Whether or not circumstances will ever worsen to a point where MOH may say we have no choice, that is something we cannot predict at this point in time.”