Singapore to distribute wearable contact-tracing device and won't rule out making it compulsory

Singapore will introduce a wearable device to assist with COVID-19 contact tracing and the minister responsible won't rule out making it compulsory. Vivian Balakrishnan, the minister-in-charge of Singapore's Smart Nation Initiative, said the device is necessary because uptake of Singapore's contact-tracing TraceTogether app …

[The commentard formerly known as Mister_C]

Run that by me again please

"all of the Singapore government officers who can access data are bound by the nation's Official Secrets Act"

In other words, the only people who get to see how the data is being (ab)used are prohibited from saying anything.

My cup of confidence runneth over.

[codemonkey]

In some countries

you have to go out your way to do a crime to get this level of attention. Well done them. It's a very inclusive policy.

[Charlie Clark]

Booming market for fakes

I mean, I'd be tempted to buy a fake just to fuck the system.

[You aint sin me, roit]

"Citizen, why am I not getting a reading from your device?"

Tin foil lined sleeves to inhibit Bluetooth... quickly roll up you sleeve, "Try again officer, sometimes it doesn't work so well."

Roll sleeve back down and melt into anonymity.

[Anonymous Coward]

Boondongle

Migrant camps in 12 person rooms stacked on top of each other to form 1000 people dorms, with shared toilets and showers and limited sockets to charge devices. (i.e. the devices are next to each other waiting to charge, while the person is in the shower block, or sitting in locker blocks so they don't get stolen while they sleep).

If you cannot get them to wear their masks at 'home' in these dorms, then how would you get them to wear a bracelet? And also what would be the point?

Migrant camps are mostly youngsters, so the death rate will be very very low, if you take out the old people and keep it contained in the migrant camps the deaths should be minimal. Something a bit more old fashioned. IMHO.

[spold]

Care and maintenance

When you receive it remember to ensure it is dry by placing it in the microwave briefly (ideally someone else's).

[Version 1.0]

Re: Care and maintenance

Put it on top of your phone if you are in the US and don't want the phone company track you too.

[Drew Scriver]

Registration?

I might believe a government that claims that it's not a tracking device if the devices are not registered to an individual. After all, if the only purpose is to check proximity to a known COVID-19 patient this could be done wholly separately from PII.

Given the (scant) details it looks like I don't have to worry about whether this eventually will be used to track people and to see its application extended beyond COVID-19. It's a given.

[Smokinimages]

Bluetooth contact tracing

How many false positives are these devices going to create? Bluetooth on a phone is approx 30 foot distance with no way of knowing how close another device is. If I'm sitting in my car outside the house, about 25-30 feet away my phone picks up my smartwatch if it's on my desk upstairs and my Shield, also upstairs. That's a hell of a lot further than the 2 meter distancing rule in the UK and means if you live on a busy street your device would be paring with people going past outside your house all day that you never had any contact with. Maybe I'm missing something but that's going to lead to a lot of people being stuck indoors for 14 days for no reason.

[EnviableOne]

Re: Bluetooth contact tracing

they log the RX signal levels, and the device make/model, which based on their collected baselines of TX levels, can semi-accuratley work out relative distance, between people and work out how close close is.