, Columnist
Singapore Can Curb Covid and Crime With Your Data
A new law allowing police to use the government’s contact-tracing app has troubled some, but that’s the trade-off for health and safety.
Singapore, decoded.
Photographer: Lauryn Ishak/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
How much personal information are you prepared to surrender to stay safe and healthy? Probably more than you realized after downloading that contact-tracing app last year, judging by a new law in Singapore. That might wind up being an acceptable trade-off.
Parliament passed a law Tuesday that allows police to use Covid-19 tracing data in some criminal investigations, formalizing authorities’ use of legal powers. When the government’s smartphone app TraceTogether was introduced last year, ministers said information would be used only to track the spread of infections.