Newly minted Science, Technology and Innovation Minister (MOSTI) Khairy Jamaluddin has revealed that Malaysia is readying a smart application that will allow authorities to quickly trace and track those who were in contact with a positively tested Covid 19 person.
The application similar to Singapore’s controversial TraceTogether just 6 days ago, is referred to one of the few countries that is able to monitor movement of people using the application. Problems faced in dealing with the disease is knowing who a person identified positive mingled with or got in contact with. Tracing and contacting all those the patient got in touch with is a monumental task for the health authority.
Singapore released TraceTogether to be downloaded by its citizens citing based on the above problems that come up during contact tracing after a COVID-19 case is confirmed. It was a complex and arduous process of interviewing the patient, listing down everything they did in the past 14 days, and identifying every person they had come into close contact with. Yet, it was a crucial step to detect further cases and preventing further possible spread of the virus.
The application was a collaborative effort between SGUnited, GovTech and the Ministry of Health who came up with the application to track close contacts of all Singaporeans should the need arise.
However, there are certain segment of the society arguing on the data collected by the Government monitoring every movement of its people. Using Bluetooth together, TraceTogether identifies other nearby phones with the app installed. It then tracks when the person are in close proximity with these other persons, including timestamps. And this information can then be used to identify close contacts based on the proximity and duration of an encounter between the two users.
While the smart application can be useful in tracking and tracing individuals who could have spread the virus to others, those who are responsible collecting this data and overseeing the system must be accountable to 32 million user data.
On the question of privacy, the Singapore Government assured that data is stored in the phone for only a day and will not be accessed unless the person is identified as a close contact. Measures are also in place to protect the mobile number. The phone number is paired with a random ID, and it is the ID that is exchanged between phones and not the actual number.
When an individual is confirmed with the virus, he can choose to allow MOH to access the data in the app to help identify close contacts. The app does not track location or contacts.
