Singapore Distributes Covid Contact Tracking Tokens

Singapore has begun distributing Bluetooth contact tracking tokens to its five million residents to help contain the spread of Covid-19.

The tokens, which can be worn on a lanyard or carried, are a hardware version of your existing contact tracing app that launched in March.

Like the app, they use Bluetooth to search for other users’ devices and then record any contact with those devices.

They could be popular with older people who don’t use smartphones.

The government also hopes that the tokens will help reopen the economy further, by allowing conferences to restart and providing better follow-up in higher-risk settings such as busy hotels, cinemas and gyms.

The initial launch is happening in areas with a higher concentration of older people, who are at higher health risk due to Covid-19 and are less likely to own a smartphone.

But the token will be available to all citizens, including foreign residents.

Currently, Singaporean residents log into shops and office buildings using a separate SafeEntry system, which uses QR codes to record the presence of users.

For some higher risk activities, SafeEntry will now also require the application or token to be registered.

Better for privacy?

A consultant hired by the government tech agency to provide feedback on the token said it is a better option for anyone concerned about privacy.

“I would rather use the token rather than the app,” said Bunnie Huang, who lined up to receive a token the first day it was available.

Like the application, the information is stored in the token, periodically purged and only loaded, or in the case of the token, it is physically delivered to the Ministry of Health if the user tests positive.

The tokens can be carried on a lanyard or in a bag and do not require a smartphone to function.

• Coronavirus: England and Wales Contact Tracking App Has Launch Date
• TraceTogether: Singapore turns to Covid wearable contact tracing technology

The advantage of a hardware-only version, Huang said, is that it makes it impossible for a software update to surreptitiously turn on location data or other sensors without the user noticing.

“With the token, if I want to remove it, I know how to destroy it,” he said.

The token will also help cover people who don’t have a smartphone and those who have encountered functionality issues with the app, he said.

Applications around the world

Singapore was the first government to introduce a nationwide contact tracing app in March.

Since then, around 2.4 million people have downloaded the app, and around 1.4 million used it in August.

Figures from the Singapore government have long recognized that those numbers must increase for the app and token to be effective.

But the Health Ministry said the program has helped reduce the time it takes to identify and quarantine close contacts of Covid-19 cases from four days to two.

The city-state has been more enthusiastic about contact tracing apps than many other countries, which have been slower to introduce apps or have struggled to make good use of them.

England and Wales, for example, will not submit their application until the end of this month, while Australia has had trouble getting information from the application that it did not obtain through regular contact tracing.