Singapore COVID 19 tracing app allows police to access data

The TraceTogether app, used by 78% of people in Singapore has now updated its privacy policy to allow access to contact tracing and location data to ‘be used in circumstances where citizen safety and security is or has been affected’. Police officers may invoke the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) powers to request users to upload their TraceTogether data for criminal investigations.

According to NPR, this step has been criticised as it backtracks on privacy assurances and undermines trust and credibility of the contact tracing app, inherently lowering its efficiency.