Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2021-02-08)

◼ TECHNOLOGY Bloomberg Businessweek February 8, 2021

21

THEBOTTOMLINE Singaporeis allowinglawenforcementto

accessCovid-tracingdataforseriouscrimes,leadingtoconcerns

othergovernmentswilldothesame.

to“imposeunnecessaryburdens,forexample
infringementsonprivacy,”whencollectingcrit-
icaldatatomonitorthevirus.Buttensionover
data-hungrycontact-tracingappshasn’tdissipated.
InSouthKorea,oneprivate-sectorcontact-
tracingappprovidedtheexactlocationofevery
placeofbusinessorhomevisitedbya positivecase.
Governmentworkersareabletoreviewhundreds
ofhoursofsurveillancecamerafootageandgo
throughmobilephoneandcreditcardtransactions
totrackpeopledown.
InChinaa digitalwebsitereportedinDecember
thathackerswereabletobreachBeijing’ssystem

fortrackingCovidtestdataandobtaingovernment
IDnumbersandsellthemonline;suchIDnumbers
areusedtogainaccesstoa person’srecords.
Othercountriesareseekingtoputlimitson
howdataisused.TheSupremeCourtofIsrael
hasbanned thecountry’sintelligence agency
fromusingtechnologytotrackCovidcases,and
Australianlawmakerspasseda lawforbiddingthe
useofcontacttracingforanyotherpurpose.
Bymovingintheotherdirection,Singaporeis
effectivelygivingothergovernmentspermissionto
follow,saysPhilRobertson,thedeputydirectorin
AsiaforHumanRightsWatch.“Singaporeissaying
to other governments, with a wink and a nod, that
we’ve done it and you can do it, too,” he says.

One risk to the approach is that people will stop

using contact-tracing apps altogether. “Is this one

of the laws of unintended consequences, where

it reduces the usage rate and could be worse for

society?” says Troy Hunt, an information security

expert and the creator of the data breach aggrega-

tion service Have I Been Pwned.

Some Singaporeans have expressed anger and

voiced doubts about data from the app being nec-

essaryforpoliceinvestigations.“Thegovernment

is usingCovid-19asanexcusetoputinplacesocial

engineering and public surveillance platforms and

policies that ordinarily would never have been

considered nor publicly palatable,” wrote Andy

Wong, a 27-year-old freelance defense writer and

risk analyst, on LinkedIn. “I wonder how many sane

foreigners will want to work in a country like that.”

Harish Pillay, a software developer who volun-

teered to help address privacy and transparency

concerns around the app last year, says he’s dis-

appointed. “It’s less than ideal to have specific

instances where the TraceTogether data could be

accessed,” he says. “This will be a tarnished gold

standard.” �Jamie Tarabay, with Yoolim Lee, Philip

J. Heijmans, and Joyce Koh

▲ A police officer patrols

Singapore’s Orchard

Road shopping district