Hereditary leader of the opposition
Sounds like a reasonable system
Singapore changes the rules and will now use COVID-19 contact-tracing app data in criminal cases
The Singapore government has decided to use data gathered by its TraceTogether COVID-19-coronavirus contact-tracing app in criminal investigations. The reuse of the info was revealed yesterday in Singapore's parliament, after Deputy Speaker Christopher De Souza was asked if the data will be used in crime probes and, if so, …
-
Tuesday 5th January 2021 05:23 GMT doublelayer
What worried people all along
I have tried to be willing to acknowledge the usefulness of contact tracing applications, but this is exactly what people feared when they were launched. This is the underhanded action that can kill trust in a government, and for governments already lacking it due to pervasive privacy violations, also kill the benefits of contact tracing. When we're faced with a crisis where public participation is required to avoid causing a great deal of preventable harm, eroding the public's trust in government is among the worst things that can be done. At this point, I think the operators of app stores should remove the Trace Together application as malware; only a decentralized tracing app can ever be permitted, and even those must be subject to review.
-
Tuesday 5th January 2021 10:44 GMT Howard Sway
the operators of app stores should remove the Trace Together application as malware
I suspect the operator of at least one of the app stores has already looked at all these contact tracing apps, and seen them as an important part of their future business model. Or thought that they were a bit amateurish compared to their own tracking and snooping capabilities, but best not mention that too loudly, eh?
-
Wednesday 6th January 2021 17:37 GMT Michael Wojcik
Re: What worried people all along
I think you're too generous. I'm far more persuaded by analyses like Bruce Schneier's or Ross Anderson's: I don't think contract tracing is significantly productive in the first place.
Couple that with the obvious, inevitable, and unpreventable temptation for abuse by both authorities and private parties, and I doubt any small benefit comes at acceptable cost.
Nor would I put much faith in the various proposed protocols for anonymized, decentralized tracking. I've skimmed through a number of those, and I think the differential-privacy leak is still unacceptable.
-
-
-
-
Wednesday 6th January 2021 08:50 GMT TheMeerkat
Re: Is anyone really surprised ?
“Nothing like this happened when the NSA laid it's eyes”
Except now you welcome it, while before you were supporting Snowden...It so easy to make people agree with totalitarianism - just scare them a bit and they will join the ranks of supporters of giving the State as much power as it wants.
-
-
-
Tuesday 5th January 2021 09:33 GMT Pascal Monett
And here we go
Step 2 in the Authoritarian Government Handbook is now accomplished : pervert a system made for one thing into a system made for something entirely unrelated.
Congratulations Singapore ! Way to validate the concerns many people were voicing when these tracking apps came out.
-
Tuesday 5th January 2021 16:29 GMT Jim-234
Don't think the same thing won't happen elsewhere
I would suggest that it's reasonable to bet that other governments if they are allowed to put such a "contact tracing system" into place will eventually decide that the data must be used "for the public good" because... (insert whatever crime/sedition is riding a current wave of hysteria).
Probably something about terrorists or think of the children or rebelling against being imprisoned in your homes en mass or such...
