WP prefers police not to use contact tracing data, but supports Bill's restrictions to protect privacy: Pritam Singh

SINGAPORE: The Workers' Party prefers that contact tracing data is not used in police investigations at all, but is prepared to support a Bill that restricts this use to investigations for serious offences, Leader of the Opposition MP Pritam Singh said on Tuesday .

"This is because of some Singaporeans’ residual concerns over privacy and the established discomfort about sharing cellphone data," he explained. Dr Balakrishnan replied that his statement in June last year could be attributed to the design of the TraceTogether app, which prioritised privacy and was not a"surveillance tool".

Then in November amid"sleepless nights", Dr Balakrishnan said he engaged in several rounds of discussion with senior Cabinet colleagues on whether and how contact tracing data should be carved out from being used under the CPC. Dr Balakrishnan said that MP Christopher de Souza filed a Parliamentary question in December regarding the use of TraceTogether data under the CPC.

Ms Lim also asked if a person could access their own TraceTogether data if they are being charged with a serious offence, possibly to use in their defence. In the bigger picture, Ms Lim asked about the usefulness of TraceTogether data to the police, pointing out that it is"likely to be incomplete and patchy" as people can turn off their phone's Bluetooth or not carry their TraceTogether tokens.

Dr Balakrishnan said that based on"broad proxies", it is estimated that 58 per cent of users use the app at least once a day, a figure that he said has remained the same before and after the initial privacy concerns surfaced. Mr Giam asked when the digital contact tracing systems will be stood down, and what the criteria for determining this is.

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