Law to be passed to ensure TraceTogether data can only be used for serious crimes

[SINGAPORE] A law will be passed to formalise assurances made earlier that the use of data from the TraceTogether contact tracing programme for criminal investigations will be limited to seven categories of serious offences, said the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office (SNDGO) in a statement on Friday evening (Jan 8).

The legislation will specify that personal data collected through digital contact tracing solutions, which comprise the TraceTogether Programme and the SafeEntry Programme, can only be used for the specific purpose of contact tracing, except where there is a clear and pressing need to use that data for criminal investigation of serious offences.

SNDGO added that the government acknowledged its error in not stating that TraceTogether data can be used for criminal investigations under provisions in the Criminal Procedure Code.

On Monday, Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Tan said in Parliament that TraceTogether data is not precluded from provisions under the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) that allow the police to access data needed in criminal investigations.

Then on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam told Parliament that the data collected by TraceTogether will be used with utmost restraint.

Even though the police have the powers to access the data for criminal investigations, they will do so only for very serious offences, such as murder, the two ministers said.

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The TraceTogether app and tokens exchange Bluetooth signals in an encrypted and randomised form with nearby users of the app or token to quickly track people exposed to confirmed Covid-19 cases. The data, when unencrypted, is linked to a person's phone number and other identification details.

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