Covid-19 crisis Access to Trace Together data for a serious crime investigation
The minister of state for home affairs Desmond Tan gave an answer to a question raised in Parliament about the Trace Together data that is stored for contact tracing.

He said that the Police is empowered under the Criminal Procedure Code to access the data for the purpose of a crime investigation.

This caused an uproar as the minister in charge of Smart Nation Vivian Balakrishnan had promised several months ago that the data would only be used by the ministry of health for contact tracing.

Many people considered the statement from DT to be a breach of promise by the government. VB explained that he was not aware about the CPC and he would now get the government to pass a new law to stop the police from accessing the TT data.

I find this response from both ministers to be quite ridiculous.

The two minister should have responded differently.

Minister DT should have explained that the Safe Entry protocol, which has been in place for nearly a year, already required the people to record the entry several times each day into many places. The data is recorded in the government servers and contain the name, NRIC, location and time of entry.

The police could access the data in the government server and the individual concerned would not be aware about the access.

In contrast, the Trace Together app/token record only the token ID of the contact person and the time in the device carried by the owner. The data is not recorded in the government servers. The location is not recorded.

The TT data is only uploaded into the server when a person is found to be infected by the covid virus. The upload is done with his knowledge. The data will allow the ministry of health to identify the people (using the token ID) who have been in close contact with the infected person during the past 14 days.

The CPC allows the police to confiscate mobile phone, computer and documents of a person who is suspected to be involved in a crime. The purpose is to gather evidence of the crime.

Although the TT data is included in the items that could be confiscated, it is unlikely to be of any use for the investigation, compared to the other sources. 

Indeed, the ministers could have asked the Police Department to declare that they will not use the data under Trace Together. (Note - there is no need to pass a law for this purpose).

I am disappointed with the replies given by the two ministers and the step that is being taken to pass a new law. There is a better way to deal with this issue.

Tan Kin Lian
 

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