Misplaced Pages

#874125

138-659: TraceTogether was a digital system implemented by the Government of Singapore to facilitate contact tracing efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore . The main goal was a quick identification of persons who may have come into close contact with anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19 . The system helps in identifying contacts such as strangers encountered in public one would not otherwise be able to identify or remember. Together with SafeEntry , it allows

276-589: A 128-bit key in CTR mode. The Rolling Proximity Identifier and the Associated Encrypted Metadata are then combined and broadcast using BLE. Clients exchange and log these payloads. Once a registered health authority has confirmed the infection of a user, the user's Temporary Exposure Keys t e k i {\displaystyle tek_{i}} and their respective interval numbers i {\displaystyle i} for

414-522: A Council of Ministers was created, appointed by the governor on the recommendation of the leader of the house. Constitutional talks between Legislative Assembly representatives and the Colonial Office were held from 1956 to 1958, and Singapore achieved full internal self-government in 1959. The governor was replaced by the Yang di-Pertuan Negara , who had power to appoint to the post of prime minister

552-544: A background process . Since May 2020, a variant of the DP-3T protocol is supported by the Exposure Notification Interface. Other protocols are constrained in operation because they are not privileged over normal apps . This leads to issues, particularly on iOS devices where digital contact tracing apps running in the background experience significantly degraded performance. The joint approach

690-533: A centralized platform developed by its NHSX division, and a second app using Exposure Notification. On June 18, the NHS announced that it would focus on using Exposure Notification to complement manual contact tracing, citing tests on the Isle of Wight showing that it had better cross-device compatibility (and would also be compatible with other European approaches), but that its distance calculations were not as reliable as

828-456: A chairman, a deputy chairman, and not less than 10 nor more than 25 other members as the Minister for Digital Development and Information may from time to time determine. The members of the board are appointed by the minister, and hold office for such term as the minister may determine unless they resign during their term of office or their appointment is revoked by the minister. The minister

966-406: A co-chair of the multi-ministry Covid task force, explained that for TraceTogether to be effective, at least three-quarters – if not everyone – of the population had to install it, and had to turn on their Bluetooth function to ensure the app was running. On 10 April 2020, approximately 3 weeks after its release, about one million people had downloaded the app, which translated to about one in six of

1104-517: A country elects to do so. Apple and Google released reference implementations for apps utilizing the system, which can be used as a base. On September 1, 2020, the consortium announced "Exposure Notifications Express" (EN Express), a system designed to ease adoption of the protocol by health authorities by removing the need to develop an app themselves. Under this system, a health authority provides parameters specific to their implementation (such as thresholds, branding, messaging, and key servers), which

1242-612: A custom protocol, BlueTrace , which allows for a distributed approach whereby participating devices exchange proximity information whenever an app detects another device with the TraceTogether app installed. The protocol, and reference app implementations of it, were also open sourced as BlueTrace and OpenTrace respectively. Initial versions of the app required users to register using only their mobile number, since 7 April 2020, it requires users' NRIC or passport numbers, and added support for SafeEntry . The website states that

1380-676: A dependency of Bencoolen and was placed under the control of the Presidency City of Calcutta ( Kolkata ) in the Bengal Presidency . On 24 June 1824, Singapore and Malacca were formally transferred to the East India Company, with the result that they came under the control of Fort William . Full cession of Singapore to the company by the Sultan and Temenggung was effected by a treaty of 19 November 1824, which

1518-446: A health official to request a one-time verification code (VC) from a verification server , which the user enters into the encounter logging app. This causes the app to obtain a cryptographically signed certificate, which is used to authorize the submission of keys to the central reporting server. The received keys are then provided to the protocol, where each client individually searches for matches in their local encounter history. If

SECTION 10

#1732802248875

1656-621: A limited time segment and for only users who have disclosed their COVID-19 status, once a device's set of daily encryption keys have been revealed. On April 16, the European Union started the process of assessing the proposed system for compatibility with privacy and data protection laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). On April 17, 2020, the UK's Information Commissioner's Office ,

1794-471: A match meeting certain risk parameters is found, the app notifies the user of potential exposure to the infection. Google and Apple intend to use the received signal strength ( RSSI ) of the beacon messages as a source to infer proximity. RSSI and other signal metadata will also be encrypted to resist deanonymization attacks. To generate encounter identifiers, first a persistent 32-byte private Tracing Key ( t k {\displaystyle tk} )

1932-634: A mostly airborne transmitted virus. The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) published document has not been revised since May 2020. Basic support remains provided through the apps store released by authorized public health agencies, including enforcement of the personal privacy protection framework as demonstrated on the UK NHS challenge in support of their contact tracers. In June 2021, Google faced allegations that it had automatically downloaded Massachusetts' "MassNotify" app to Android devices without user consent. Google clarified that it had not actually downloaded

2070-633: A national reporting server for use with the protocol, which it stated would ease adoption and interoperability between states. In August 2020, Google stated that at least 20 U.S. states had expressed interest in using the protocol. In Alabama , the Alabama Department of Public Health , University of Alabama at Birmingham , and the University of Alabama System deployed the "GuideSafe" app for university students returning to campus, which includes Exposure Notification features. On August 5,

2208-666: A parliament has been dissolved a general election must be held within three months. Following a general election, the President appoints as Prime Minister an MP who, in their judgment, is likely to command the confidence of the majority of the MPs. In practice, the Prime Minister is usually the leader of the political party holding the majority of the seats in Parliament. The President also appoints other Ministers from among

2346-476: A random number generator. Devices record received messages, retaining them locally for 14 days. If a user tests positive for infection, the last 14 days of their daily encryption keys can be uploaded to a central server, where it is then broadcast to all devices on the network. The method through which daily encryption keys are transmitted to the central server and broadcast is defined by individual app developers. The Google-developed reference implementation calls for

2484-451: A request made by the Prime Minister to dissolve Parliament, Parliamentary General Elections are held to elect members of Parliament for a new term. The President, in their discretion, then appoints a Prime Minister who is a member of Parliament representing any political party or coalition of political parties who in their judgement is likely to command the confidence of the majority of the members of Parliament. The Prime Minister then forms

2622-557: A sense of national identity and a spirit of dedicated service to a multiracial community. There are five Community Development Councils (CDCs) appointed by the board of management of the PA for districts in Singapore, namely, the Central Singapore CDC , North East CDC , North West CDC , South East CDC and South West CDC . The functions of a CDC include fostering community bonding and strengthening social cohesion amongst

2760-507: A statement regarding the privacy concerns and about the potential abuse of the data. Similar to the app, the TraceTogether Token utilises BlueTooth to exchange signals with other TraceTogether Tokens or the mobile app. After encrypting the data of what devices or apps are near by, the device stores up to 25 days of information before deletion. The device is designed for those who have no smartphone, which consisted of about 5% of

2898-643: A supervisory authority for data protection, published an opinion analyzing both Exposure Notification and the Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing protocol, stating that the systems are "aligned with the principles of data protection by design and by default" (as mandated by the GDPR). Exposure Notification is compatible with Android devices supporting Bluetooth Low Energy and running Android 6.0 "Marshmallow" and newer with Google Mobile Services . It

SECTION 20

#1732802248875

3036-771: A temporary Rolling Proximity Identifier ( R P I i , j {\displaystyle RPI_{i,j}} ) is generated every time the BLE MAC address changes, roughly every 15–20 minutes. The following algorithm is used: R P I i , j = A E S 128 ( R P I K i , 'EN-RPI' | | 0 x 000000000000 | | E N I N j ) {\displaystyle RPI_{i,j}=AES128(RPIK_{i},{\text{'EN-RPI'}}||{\mathtt {0x000000000000}}||ENIN_{j})} , where A E S 128 ( Key, Data ) {\displaystyle AES128({\text{Key, Data}})}

3174-586: A user must upload their entire contact log to a health authority administered server. This is in contradistinction to decentralised report processing protocols such as the Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (DP-3T) protocol. In Parliament on 2 February 2021, it was revealed that the police could request the data after 25 days under certain unspecified exceptions. On 4 January 2021, Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Tan revealed in Parliament that TraceTogether data could be accessed by

3312-411: Is a HKDF function using SHA-256, and D i {\displaystyle D_{i}} is the day number for the 24-hour window the broadcast is in starting from Unix Epoch Time. These generated keys are later sent to the central reporting server should a user become infected. From the daily tracing key a 16-byte temporary Rolling Proximity Identifier is generated every 10 minutes with

3450-524: Is a HMAC function using SHA-256, and T I N j {\displaystyle TIN_{j}} is the time interval number , representing a unique index for every 10 minute period in a 24-hour day. The Truncate function returns the first 16 bytes of the HMAC value. When two clients come within proximity of each other they exchange and locally store the current R P I i , j {\displaystyle RPI_{i,j}} as

3588-669: Is a decentralized architecture. The majority of infection reporting is centralized in individual app implementations. To handle encounter logging, the system uses Bluetooth Low Energy to send tracking messages to nearby devices running the protocol to discover encounters with other people. The tracking messages contain unique identifiers that are encrypted with a secret daily key held by the sending device. These identifiers change every 15–20 minutes as well as Bluetooth MAC address in order to prevent tracking of clients by malicious third parties through observing static identifiers over time. The sender's daily encryption keys are generated using

3726-436: Is a statutory board, the objects of which include the organisation and the promotion of group participation in social, cultural, educational and athletic activities for the people of Singapore in order that they may realise that they belong to a multiracial community , the interests of which transcend sectional loyalties ; and the establishment of institutions for the purpose of leadership training in order to instill in leaders

3864-619: Is also designed to maintain interoperability between Android and iOS devices, which constitute nearly all of the market. The ACLU stated the approach "appears to mitigate the worst privacy and centralization risks, but there is still room for improvement". In late April, Google and Apple shifted the emphasis of the naming of the system, describing it as an "exposure notification service", rather than "contact tracing" system. Digital contact tracing protocols typically have two major responsibilities: encounter logging and infection reporting. Exposure Notification only involves encounter logging which

4002-481: Is an AES cryptography function with a 128-bit key, the data is one 16-byte block, j {\displaystyle j} denotes the Unix Epoch Time at the moment the roll occurs, and E N I N j {\displaystyle ENIN_{j}} is the corresponding 10-minute interval number. Next, additional Associated Encrypted Metadata is encrypted. What the metadata represents

4140-647: Is calculated with the algorithm R P I K i = H K D F ( t e k i , N U L L , 'EN-RPIK' , 16 ) {\displaystyle RPIK_{i}=HKDF(tek_{i},NULL,{\text{'EN-RPIK'}},16)} , and A E M K i {\displaystyle AEMK_{i}} using the algorithm A E M K i = H K D F ( t e k i , N U L L , 'EN-AEMK' , 16 ) {\displaystyle AEMK_{i}=HKDF(tek_{i},NULL,{\text{'EN-AEMK'}},16)} . From these values

4278-520: Is composed of the following members. On 16 April 2024, then Prime Minister-designate Lawrence Wong announced that then outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong would assume the office of Senior Minister and stay on in his cabinet after stepping down as the Prime Minister on 15 May 2024. As in the United Kingdom and in a number of Commonwealth countries, Members of Parliament (MPs) may be appointed as Ministers of State to aid Ministers in

TraceTogether - Misplaced Pages Continue

4416-433: Is generally perceived to be competent in managing the country's economy , and largely free from political corruption . Transparency International 's 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index , which compares countries according to the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians, ranked Singapore in joint first place with Denmark and New Zealand out of 178 countries. In addition, Singapore

4554-503: Is generated by a client. From this a 16 byte Daily Tracing Key is derived using the algorithm d t k i = H K D F ( t k , N U L L , 'CT-DTK' | | D i , 16 ) {\displaystyle dtk_{i}=HKDF(tk,NULL,{\text{'CT-DTK'}}||D_{i},16)} , where H K D F ( Key, Salt, Data, OutputLength ) {\displaystyle HKDF({\text{Key, Salt, Data, OutputLength}})}

4692-532: Is hereby notified for general information that, pursuant to Article 30(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore, the Prime Minister has directed that Mr S. Jayakumar shall, with effect from 1st April 2009, be charged with the responsibility for the following matters: and that he shall be designated as Senior Minister and Co-ordinating Minister for National Security. Ministers may be designated by

4830-457: Is not required to provide any reason for revoking the appointment of a board member. The minister may, in consultation with the Board or otherwise, give the board directions as he thinks fit that are not inconsistent with the provisions of the act concerning the exercise and performance by the board of its functions, and the board is required to give effect to such directions. With the approval of

4968-650: Is not specified, likely to allow the later expansion of the protocol. The following algorithm is used: Associated Encrypted Metadata i , j = A E S 128 _ C T R ( A E M K i , R P I i , j , Metadata ) {\displaystyle {\text{Associated Encrypted Metadata}}_{i,j}=AES128\_CTR(AEMK_{i},RPI_{i,j},{\text{Metadata}})} , where A E S 128 _ C T R ( Key, IV, Data ) {\displaystyle AES128\_CTR({\text{Key, IV, Data}})} denotes AES encryption with

5106-516: Is serviced via operating system updates. It was first introduced as part of iOS 13.5 on May 20, 2020. In December 2020, Apple released iOS 12.5, which backported EN support to iPhone models that cannot be upgraded to iOS 13, including iPhone 6 and older. Exposure Notification apps may only be released by public health authorities. To discourage fragmentation, each country will typically be restricted to one app, although Apple and Google stated that they would accommodate regionalized approaches if

5244-399: Is serviced via updates to Google Play Services , ensuring compatibility with the majority of Android devices released outside of Mainland China, and not requiring it to be integrated into Android firmware updates (which would hinder deployment by relying on individual OEMs ). It is not compatible with devices that do not have GMS, such as Huawei devices released since May 2019. On iOS, EN

5382-674: Is the sense intended when it is said that a political party "forms the Government". The Constitution of the Republic of Singapore uses the word Government to mean the Executive branch, made up of the President and the Cabinet. This article describes the Government of Singapore in this technical sense, as well as selected aspects of the Executive branch of the Government. On 30 January 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles , an Englishman who

5520-420: Is then processed to generate the required functionality. On Android, this data is used to generate an app, and a configuration profile that can also be deployed to users via Google Play Services without a dedicated app. On iOS, the functionality is integrated directly at the system level on iOS 13.7 and newer without a dedicated app. The last information update on the “Exposure Notification Systems” partnership

5658-467: The 11th Parliament , Lim Hwee Hua , who was a Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, also held the posts of Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for Transport. As of 8 July 2024, the ministries of the Government are the following: A ministry is usually composed of a headquarters and a number of departments, boards or other subordinate entities, and statutory boards . For instance, in May 2007

TraceTogether - Misplaced Pages Continue

5796-620: The 1959 general elections , the People's Action Party (PAP) swept to power with 43 out of the 51 seats in the Assembly, and Lee Kuan Yew became the first Prime Minister of Singapore. Nine other ministers were appointed to the Cabinet. The executive branch of the Singapore Government remained largely unchanged, although now it governed a state within a larger federation . However, with effect from 9 August 1965, Singapore left

5934-429: The COVID-19 pandemic ends, with epidemiological data given to MOH that does not identify users. The backlash prompted the Government to introduce the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) (Amendment) Bill on 2 February 2021 formalising the assurances to restrict police access to investigate for seven categories of offences. Additionally, only senior police officers with the rank of inspector and above can request for data in

6072-924: The Central Provident Fund Board (CPF), the Housing and Development Board (HDB), the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), the Land Transport Authority (LTA), the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), the National Heritage Board (NHB), and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) are all statutory boards. The National Heritage Board is an example of a typical statutory board. It

6210-632: The Federation of Malaysia and became a fully independent republic . On separation from Malaysia, the Singapore Government retained the executive authority it held, and took on additional executive authority over Singapore that the Parliament of Malaysia relinquished. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong , the Supreme Head of State of Malaysia, also ceased to be the Supreme Head of Singapore and relinquished his sovereignty, jurisdiction, power and authority, executive or otherwise in respect of Singapore, which

6348-693: The Norwegian Institute of Public Health announced that it would lead development of an Exposure Notification-based app for the country, which replaces a centralized app that had ceased operations in June 2020 after the Norwegian Data Protection Authority ruled that it violated privacy laws. In Nov 2020, Bermuda launched the Wehealth Bermuda app developed by Wehealth, a Public Benefit Corporation, which

6486-462: The President and the Executive. Executive authority of Singapore is vested in the President but exercised on the advice of the Cabinet led by the Prime Minister. The President, acting as the Head of State, may only act in their discretion in appointing the Prime Minister, acting as the Head of Government; as well as withholding consent for the dissolution of Parliament; along with performing key checks on

6624-502: The TraceTogether-only SafeEntry (TT-only SE) has been made mandatory for all Singaporeans and at all places such as cinemas, restaurants, workplaces, schools and shopping malls for contact tracing purposes. This includes the device called SafeEntry Gateway (Check in and check out) to enable users to scan in and out. In addition, TraceTogether also shows vaccination status and pre-event testing (PET) status whether

6762-891: The Virginia Department of Health released its "COVIDWise" app — making it the first U.S. state to release an Exposure Notification-based app for the general public. North Dakota and Wyoming released an EN app known as "Care19 Alert", developed by ProudCrowd and using the APHL server (the app is a spin-off from an existing location logging application it had developed, based on one it had developed primarily for use by students travelling to attend college football away games). Maryland, Nevada, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. have announced plans to use EN Express. In September, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania all adopted "COVID Alert" apps developed by NearForm, which are based on its COVID Tracker Ireland app. Later that month,

6900-546: The police for criminal investigations under the Criminal Procedure Code , which contradicted previous assurances by Minister Balakrishnan and others that the data would be used only for contact tracing. This disclosure followed investigations triggered by an inquiry from a member of the public in October 2020, and the filing of a parliamentary question by MP Christopher de Souza in early December 2020, with

7038-621: The time is discretized in 10 minute intervals starting from Unix Epoch Time. From this two 128-bit keys are calculated, the Rolling Proximity Identifier Key ( R P I K i {\displaystyle RPIK_{i}} ) and the Associated Encrypted Metadata Key ( A E M K i {\displaystyle AEMK_{i}} ). R P I K i {\displaystyle RPIK_{i}}

SECTION 50

#1732802248875

7176-512: The 2.1 version of the app released on 3 July 2020, and version 2.1.3 of 5 Aug added informational, work pass and SafeEntry QR features. The app was released on 20 March 2020, following 8 weeks of development by Singapore's Government Technology Agency in collaboration with Ministry of Health (MOH). On 10 April 2020, following the lifting of the embargo on the Google-Apple Exposure Notification (GAEN) system ,

7314-705: The 3-month delay attributed to deliberations over the possibility of excluding TraceTogether data from the Criminal Procedure Code. On 5 January 2021, Minister Balakrishnan updated Parliament that the police had to the best of his knowledge by that point in time accessed contact tracing data once in the case of a murder investigation. Following questions from Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh and Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai , Minister Desmond Tan explained in Parliament on 2 February 2021 that this had happened in May 2020 during

7452-636: The Board are: The board is empowered to "do all things necessary or convenient to be done for or in connection with the performance of its functions". Without prejudice to the generality of that provision, the Board also has power to, for example, develop and manage museums, archives, oral history centres and other facilities related to its functions; to advise and facilitate the preservation of historic sites; and to establish liaison with other museums, archives, oral history centres, universities and other institutions to secure maximum collaboration of all activities relevant to its functions. The board consists of

7590-530: The Cabinet since 1959. The term Government of Singapore can have a number of different meanings. At its widest, it can refer collectively to the three traditional branches of government – the Executive branch , Legislative branch (the President and Parliament of Singapore ) and Judicial branch (the Supreme Court and Subordinate Courts of Singapore ). The term is also used colloquially to mean

7728-739: The Delegation of Powers (Ministry of Law) (Consolidation) Notification, the Senior Minister of State for Law is deputed to exercise certain powers of the Minister for Law under the Copyright Act, Criminal Procedure Code, Land Acquisition Act, Land Surveyors Act, and Pawnbrokers Act; while the Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs is deputed the powers of the Minister for Home Affairs under regulation 157 of

7866-537: The Executive and Legislature together, as these are the branches of government responsible for day-to-day governance of the nation and lawmaking. At its narrowest, the term is used to refer to the Members of Parliament (MPs) belonging to a particular political party (or coalition of parties ) holding a majority of seats in Parliament sufficient to enable the party (or coalition) to form the Cabinet of Singapore – this

8004-537: The Government and, along with the Cabinet, sets the general direction and control of the Government for the next term. A statutory board is an autonomous agency of the Government that is established by an Act of Parliament and overseen by a government ministry. Unlike ministries and government departments that are subdivisions of ministries, statutory boards are not staffed by civil servants and have greater independence and flexibility in their operations. There are five Community Development Councils (CDCs) appointed by

8142-435: The Government backtracking on its earlier assurance that TraceTogether would only be used for contact tracing" and "clearly undermines their trust and credibility, and could undermine its future efforts .... to keep COVID-19 under control". Following the announcement, some users deleted the app or left the token at home, while others disabled their phone's Bluetooth or selected the “Pause Tracking” function after checking in. In

8280-472: The Government in addition to the ceremonial duties of the Head of State inherited from the Westminster system . The Cabinet, consisting of the Prime Minister and ministers appointed by the President on the Prime Minister's advice, is responsible for heading the Executive through ministries and other statutory boards . At the end of the term or at any time during the term, once the President has consented to

8418-474: The Government. As Singapore follows the Westminster system of government, the legislative agenda of Parliament is determined by the Cabinet. At the start of each new Parliamentary session , the President gives an address prepared by the Cabinet that outlines what the Cabinet intends to achieve in the session. Each parliament lasts for a maximum of five years from the date of its first sitting, and once

SECTION 60

#1732802248875

8556-652: The Governor on the recommendation of the Leader of the House, who would be the leader of the largest political party or coalition of parties having majority support in the legislature. The recommendation was implemented in 1955. In the general election held that year, the Labour Front took a majority of the seats in the Assembly, and David Saul Marshall became the first Chief Minister of Singapore . Major problems with

8694-584: The Governor was replaced by the Yang di-Pertuan Negara (Head of State), who had power to appoint as Prime Minister the person most likely to command the authority of the Legislative Assembly, and other Ministers of the Cabinet on the Prime Minister's advice. The Constitution also created the post of the British High Commissioner, who was entitled to receive the agenda of each Cabinet meeting and to see all Cabinet papers. In

8832-561: The MPs, acting in accordance with the Prime Minister's advice. The Prime Minister may, by giving written directions, charge any Minister with responsibility for any department or subject. In practice, this is done by issuing notifications that are published in the Government Gazette . For instance, the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Responsibility of Senior Minister and Co-ordinating Minister for National Security, Prime Minister's Office) Notification 2009 states: It

8970-485: The Ministry of Health (MOH) affirming that such persons were at low risk and not restricted from continuing with their regular activities. This was effected by requiring customers to show the ‘Covid Health Status’ section of the app or the ‘history’ tab, despite the app data being originally intended only for personal reference. The Singapore Tourism Board subsequently issued a statement that "cruise lines should adhere to

9108-623: The Ministry of Law had three departments (the Chief Information Officer's Office, Insolvency and Public Trustee's Office and Legal Aid Bureau), three boards and tribunals (the Appeals Board for Land Acquisitions, Copyright Tribunal and Land Surveyors Board), and two statutory boards (the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore and Singapore Land Authority ). The First Lawrence Wong Cabinet

9246-521: The NRIC number was required in order to allow MOH to reach the right person when they need to give important health advice on COVID-19, and was stored in a secure server, never accessed unless needed for contact tracing, and never shared with other app users. The main goal of SafeEntry helps COVID-19 cases remember the places that they've visited. This helps MOH to identify potential infection clusters and perform cluster COVID-19 testing. Following installation,

9384-616: The Official Members. In 1956, members of the Legislative Assembly held constitutional talks with the Colonial Office in London. The talks broke down as Marshall did not agree to the British Government's proposal for the casting vote on a proposed Defence Council to be held by the British High Commissioner to Singapore, who would only exercise it in an emergency. Marshall resigned as Chief Minister in June 1956, and

9522-732: The PA's board of management is empowered to designate the Chairman of a CDC to be the Mayor for the district that the CDC is appointed for. As it is the practice for MPs to be appointed as Chairmen of CDCs, these MPs have also been designated as Mayors. As of 25 July 2020, the Mayors are: Even if Mayors are required to vacate their seats in Parliament because Parliament has been dissolved or otherwise, they continue to hold office until their terms of office expire or they are directed to vacate their office by

9660-469: The PA's board of management. As of January 2012, the Mayors are paid an annual salary of S$ 660,000 (US$ 486,500). Exposure Notification The Apple/Google protocol is similar to the Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (DP-3T) protocol created by the European DP-3T consortium and the Temporary Contact Number (TCN) protocol by Covid Watch , but is implemented at the operating system level, which allows for more efficient operation as

9798-425: The Prime Minister to be in charge of particular ministries , or as Ministers in the Prime Minister's Office . Such Ministers were formerly known as Ministers without portfolio . The Prime Minister may retain any department or subject in their charge. Some Ministers are appointed as Second Ministers for portfolios other than their own to assist the primary Minister in their duties. For instance, on 1 April 2009 during

9936-817: The Prisons Regulations pursuant to the Delegation of Powers (Ministry of Home Affairs) (Consolidation) Notification. A statutory board is an autonomous agency of the Government that is established by an Act of Parliament and overseen by a government ministry. The Act sets out the purposes, powers and rights of the agency. Unlike ministries and government departments that are subdivisions of ministries, statutory boards may not be staffed by civil servants and have greater independence and flexibility in their operations. They are managed by boards of directors whose members usually include businessmen, professionals, senior civil servants and officials of trade unions. The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR),

10074-630: The Rendel Constitution were that the Chief Minister and ministers' powers were ill-defined, and that the Official Members retained control of the finance, administration, and internal security and law portfolios. This led to confrontation between Marshall, who saw himself as a Prime Minister governing the country, and the Governor , Sir John Fearns Nicoll , who felt that important decisions and policies should remain with himself and

10212-623: The Rendel Constitutional Commission under the chairmanship of Sir George William Rendel , which had been appointed to comprehensively review the constitution of the Colony of Singapore, rendered its report. Among other things, it recommended that a Council of Ministers be created, composed of three ex officio Official Members and six Elected Members of the Legislative Assembly of Singapore appointed by

10350-459: The TraceTogether app is not anonymous as participants have to register using their phone number and national registration number or other evidence of residency. To safeguard participant's mutual privacy and ensuring their control over the data, TraceTogether states that it: The main privacy concern relating to the BlueTrace protocol is due to the use of centralised report processing, in which

10488-454: The TraceTogether system, similarly to existing data requests requirements for bank data from financial institutions. The Bill was debated among the Members of Parliament from People's Action Party , Workers' Party (WP), and Progress Singapore Party (PSP), with members from opposition WP preferring not to use the data but support a bill to restrict, and PSP opposing the use of data. The Bill

10626-553: The United States, states such as California and Massachusetts declined to use the technology, opting for manual contact tracing. California later reversed course and adopted the system in December 2020. Chinese vendor Huawei (which cannot include Google software on its current Android products due to U.S. sanctions) added a OS-level DP-3T API known as "Contact Shield" to its Huawei Mobile Services stack in June 2020, which

10764-432: The absence of any provision of law to the contrary, with the approval of the President and by notification in the Government Gazette , depute any person by name or the person for the time being discharging the duties of an office designated by him to exercise that power or perform that duty on behalf of the Minister subject to such conditions, exceptions and qualifications as the President may determine. For instance, under

10902-501: The adoption rate had exceeded 70%. On 11 May 2021, Balakrishnan revealed that the adoption rate had exceeded 92%, with 4,923,054 individuals aged above six. On 19 January 2022, the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office indicated that "almost all of Singapore's population above the age of six" are using the system. There were about 3,000 users, or 0.056% of the registered users, who deregistered for reasons such as expats leaving

11040-440: The algorithm R P I i , j = Truncate ( H M A C ( d t k i , 'CT-RPI' | | T I N j ) , 16 ) {\displaystyle RPI_{i,j}={\text{Truncate}}(HMAC(dtk_{i},{\text{'CT-RPI'}}||TIN_{j}),16)} , where H M A C ( Key, Data ) {\displaystyle HMAC({\text{Key, Data}})}

11178-458: The announcement, despite Balakrishnan's explanation and acceptance of full responsibility. Some observers attributed this to the fact that the clarification was made 9 months after the data had already been used, and only in response to direct and repeated parliamentary questioning. Privacy concerns were raised by various experts with former Nominated Member of Parliament and Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan saying that "the news came across as

11316-566: The app pass by, it uses the Bluetooth Relative Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) readings between devices across time to approximate the proximity and duration of an encounter between two users. This proximity and duration information is stored on one's phone for 25 days on a rolling basis. Once a user tests positive for infection, the MOH works with them to map out their activity for past 14 days and requests

11454-451: The app presents a notification to the user warning them of potential infection. Unlike version 1.0 of the protocol, version 1.1 does not use a persistent tracing key , rather every day a new random 16-byte Temporary Exposure Key ( t e k i {\displaystyle tek_{i}} ) is generated. This is analogous to the daily tracing key from version 1.0. Here i {\displaystyle i} denotes

11592-608: The app to user devices, and that Google Play Services was being used to deploy an EN Express configuration profile that would allow it to be enabled via the Google Settings app without needing to download a separate app. As of May 21, at least 22 countries had received access to the protocol. Switzerland and Austria were among the first to back the protocol. On April 26, after initially backing PEPP-PT , Germany announced it would back Exposure Notification, followed shortly after by Ireland and Italy. Despite already adopting

11730-610: The app, leading some critics to dismiss it as a failure. In May 2020, Covid Watch launched the first calibration and beta testing pilot of the GAEN APIs in the United States at the University of Arizona. In Aug 2020, the app launched publicly for a phased roll-out in the state of Arizona. The U.S. Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) stated in July 2020 that it was working with Apple, Google, and Microsoft on

11868-512: The app, with 1.4 million active users in August. As of 14 December 2020, following the release of the token, adoption rate of the app and token combined exceeded 60% of Singapore's resident population. Despite falling short of the 70% adoption target that the Government had set loosen restrictions, the Government later announced on the same day the loosening of restrictions to start from 28 December 2020. On 23 December 2020, Balakrishnan revealed that

12006-539: The background, which would allow the government to create its own system independent of Exposure Notification. On August 9, the Canadian province of Alberta announced plans to migrate to the EN-based COVID Alert from its BlueTrace-based ABTraceTogether app. This did not occur, and on November 6 Premier of Alberta Jason Kenney announced that the province would not do so, arguing that ABTraceTogether

12144-512: The board of management of the People's Association (PA) for districts in Singapore . Where there are not less than 150,000 residents in a district, the PA's board of management may designate the chairman of a CDC to be the mayor for the district that the CDC is appointed for. As it is the practice for Members of Parliament (MPs) to be appointed as Chairmen of CDCs, these MPs have also been designated as mayors. There are currently five districts in

12282-519: The centralised BlueTrace protocol, Australia's Department of Health and Digital Transformation Agency were investigating whether the protocol could be implemented to overcome limitations of its COVIDSafe app. On May 25, Switzerland became the first country to launch an app leveraging the protocol, SwissCovid , beginning with a small pilot group. In England, the National Health Service (NHS) trialed both an in-house app on

12420-716: The centralized version of the app, an issue which was later rectified. Later, it was stated that the app would be supplemented by QR codes at venues. A study of the impact of Exposure Notification in England and Wales estimated that it averted 8,700 (95% confidence interval 4,700–13,500) deaths out of the 32,500 recorded from its introduction on 24 September 2020 to 31 December 2020. Canada launched its COVID Alert app, co-developed in partnership with BlackBerry Limited and Shopify , on July 31 in Ontario. As of February 2022, only around 57,000 positive cases had been reported via

12558-432: The circulation of foreign newspapers deemed to have engaged in domestic politics . The Constitution defines the Government of Singapore as the President and the Cabinet of Singapore. The executive authority of Singapore is vested in the President and is exercisable by them or by the Cabinet of Singapore or any Minister authorised by the Cabinet. However, the President normally plays a nominal and largely ceremonial role in

12696-500: The collection points as it was noted that a crowd formed and lasted for a couple of hours at Marsiling Community Centre for a couple of hours even after that distribution strategy was reworked. The distribution strategy would subsequently be changed from manned counter operations to token dispensing vending machines from 31 August 2021 onwards. Downloading, installing, registering the TraceTogether app and scanning in/out using

12834-430: The concerns over privacy, the app was slowly adopted by the population of the Singapore, eventually reaching a 92% adoption rate in May 2021. The app was now mandated for specific groups of people and those attempting to enter certain venues and events. On 9 February 2023, the system was deactivated after the authorities determined that the system was no longer required and closed down on 10 January 2024. The app utilises

12972-520: The contact log. To facilitate the conduct of contact tracing measure to prevent further outbreak of any infectious disease, the user cannot withhold their contact information log under the Infectious Diseases Act (Chapter 137). The usage of the app had been limited by the technical limitations of needing to have the application to run in the foreground on iOS devices, and battery drain, but these problems had been reportedly addressed in

13110-415: The country, people who have died, or people opting out over data security reasons. With TraceTogether complementing manual contact tracing effort, the contact tracing teams has improved their efficiency by reducing the time taken to identify and quarantine a close contact from four days to less than two days. More than 10% of close contacts identified by TraceTogether turned positive during quarantine period,

13248-544: The country. From the founding of contemporary Singapore in 1819, Singapore was headed by two residents in succession. Following Singapore's amalgamation into the Straits Settlements in 1826, it was governed by a governor together with a legislative council . An executive council of the Straits Settlements was introduced in 1877 to advise the governor but wielded no executive power. In 1955,

13386-463: The course of the Punggol Field murder investigation, where the police tried to but failed to obtain the TraceTogether data from the suspect Surajsrikan Diwakar Mani Tripathi, who did not install the app in his phone. In the aftermath, Surajsrikan was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with 15 strokes of the cane on 15 September 2022. There was significant backlash to

13524-409: The developers announced that they had been working with Apple and Google on specifications which would allow for cross-border inter-operability, and had begun to incorporate these new APIs into TraceTogether. The developers envisaged this as a way to overcome the app's inability to access full background Bluetooth scanning functionality on iOS devices (which led to the app being active only when it ran in

13662-442: The encounter identifier. Once a registered health authority has confirmed the infection of a user, the user's Daily Tracing Key for the past 14 days is uploaded to the central reporting server. Clients then download this report and individually recalculate every Rolling Proximity Identifier used in the report period, matching it against the user's local encounter log. If a matching entry is found, then contact has been established and

13800-402: The executive branch of government. Although the President acts in their own personal discretion in the exercise of certain functions as a check on the Cabinet and Parliament of Singapore, they are otherwise required to act in accordance with the advice of the Cabinet or of a Minister acting under the general authority of the Cabinet. It is the Cabinet that has the general direction and control of

13938-572: The foreground), and increase the pool of interoperable devices, both of which could have increased the contact tracing utility. On 5 June 2020, the Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative Vivian Balakrishnan acknowledged in Parliament the inability of the TraceTogether app to work well particularly on iOS or Apple devices, and that these had not been overcome despite discussions at

14076-425: The government would be distributing a physical device, named TraceTogether Token, to augment the app. The TraceTogether Token is designed primarily to support Singapore residents who do not own a smartphone, mainly some elderly, children aged seven and above or residents with workplace restriction. The physical token helps to increase the optimal number of users required for the contact tracing system to work well, which

14214-619: The guidance from the MOH and the SNDGO regarding the use of data from the TraceTogether app", while the cruise companies reversed or changed the ban to an advisory "encouraging" affected passengers to postpone their sailing dates. With the easing of the Covid Omicron wave, the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition was lowered from orange state to yellow state on 26 April 2022. Additionally,

14352-467: The identification of specific locations where a spread between close contacts may occur. Released on 20 March 2020, the system initially consisted only of an app by the same name. However, this was later supplemented by a physical token mainly intended for elderly and children who may not own a smartphone, or those who prefer not to use the app. The app was the first main COVID-19 tracking app released in

14490-511: The minister, the board is required to appoint a chief executive officer who is responsible to the Board for the proper administration and management of the Board's affairs in accordance with the policy laid down by the Board. The board is entitled to appoint employees and officers on such terms as to remuneration or otherwise as it may determine, and to engage other persons and pay for their services as it considers necessary for carrying out its functions and duties. The People's Association (PA)

14628-422: The month of the disclosure (January 2021), 350 people requested that their contact tracing data be erased from the government's servers, with the number increasing to more than 1,100 by April. The original TraceTogether privacy statement was updated on 4 January 2021 to include possible access by police officers for investigations. Various officials provided reassurances. Balakrishnan explained that this situation

14766-457: The past 14 days are uploaded to the central reporting server. Clients then download this report and individually recalculate every Rolling Proximity Identifier starting from interval number i {\displaystyle i} , matching it against the user's local encounter log. If a matching entry is found, then contact has been established and the app presents a notification to the user warning them of potential infection. Version 1.2 of

14904-401: The people of Singapore; and advising the PA on matters affecting the well-being of residents in districts, the provision and use of public facilities and services within districts, and the use of public funds allocated to districts for community activities. Each CDC consists of a chairman and between 12 and 80 other members. Where the number of residents in a district is not less than 150,000,

15042-510: The percentage may be low due to Singapore mandating mask-wearing since 14 April 2020. It was reported on 22 April 2021 that TraceTogether system had identified at least 75 persons who had to be placed under quarantine, but would likely not have been picked up through a manual contact tracing process. On 7 June 2020, Minister-in-Charge of the Smart Nation Initiative Vivian Balakrishnan announced that

15180-451: The performance of their functions. In addition, the Constitution provides that the President, acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister, may appoint Parliamentary Secretaries from among the MPs to assist Ministers in the discharge of their duties and functions. Such office holders are not regarded as members of the Cabinet. Where in any written law a Minister is empowered to exercise any power or perform any duty, he may, in

15318-565: The person most likely to command the authority of the assembly, and other ministers of the Cabinet on the prime minister's advice. In the 1959 general elections , the People's Action Party (PAP) swept to power with 43 out of the 51 seats in the assembly, and Lee Kuan Yew became the first prime minister of Singapore. The executive branch of the Singapore Government remained unchanged following Singapore's merger with Malaysia in 1963, and subsequent independence in 1965. The PAP has been returned to power in every general election and has thus formed

15456-467: The person test positive or negative for COVID-19. All other methods of checking in through SafeEntry such as either the phone camera, NRIC or Singpass app are all removed since the second lockdown on 17 May 2021. In early May 2021, some businesses including ComfortDelGro Driving Centre , Royal Caribbean Cruises and Dream Cruises were reported to have denied entry to students and passengers whose TraceTogether app displayed "possible exposure", despite

15594-520: The pool of participants. On 7 December 2020, market research firm Gartner crowned TraceTogether as the Asia-Pacific winner for its 2020 Government Eye on Innovation award, after the firm had conducted a poll among various government organisations around the world. With the discontinuation of the system, the app has been removed from all official mobile app stores. During the release of the app, Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong ,

15732-459: The population. It is designed to be waterproof and its battery life is about six months. There are no physical buttons on the device, and it has a green/red light indicator for battery life and/or to indicate a fault. The device does not have GPS functionality, and access to the data remains restricted among the civil service. The physical device was made available for collection from 14 September 2020. A 26 October 2020 report indicated that there

15870-437: The protocol is identical to version 1.1, only introducing minor terminology changes. Preservation of privacy was referred to as a major component of the protocol; it is designed so that no personally identifiable information can be obtained about the user or their device. Apps implementing Exposure Notification are only allowed to collect personal information from users on a voluntary basis. Consent must be obtained by

16008-760: The public service. In such urgent cases, the governor had to inform the council of the measures he had taken. During the Second World War , the Japanese Empire invaded Singapore; the Japanese were victorious and set up their own government for a few years. Following the Second World War, the Straits Settlements were disbanded and Singapore became a Crown colony in its own right. The reconstituted Executive Council consisted of six officials and four nominated "unofficials". In February 1954,

16146-476: The resident population at the time. This percentage increased to 17% of the population in May 2020. On 5 June 2020, the Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative announced in Parliament that the TraceTogether has been downloaded on a voluntary basis by 1.5 million users, which worked out to only 25 per cent of the population. By 4 September 2020, about 2.4 million users had downloaded

16284-478: The respective constituencies, and distribution was done on a rolling basis at the constituency level, with the last remaining community centres reopened for collection only on 23 December 2020. A Straits Times editor, Irene Tham advocated on 30 October 2020 for the tokens to be distributed first and mandate the usage later. Tham also suggested a similar queue system to that of telcos registering customers and assigning time slots could be adopted to avoid overcrowding at

16422-479: The technical and policy level with Apple. He subsequently explained that the Government had decided against using the Google-Apple Exposure Notification (GAEN) system , citing its inability to "identify how, when and whom the person was infected by or passed the infection to" and "the 'graph' not being available to the contact tracers". Instead, a new portable, wearable device, called the TraceTogether Token would be issued to all 5.7 million residents in order to increase

16560-399: The tokens at the community centres in a month-long exercise from 13 February 2023. The TraceTogether app (as well as SafeEntry app) could be uninstalled from handphones as well. Authorities had also announced that the data collected through the system was deleted from their servers. The BlueTrace protocol is designed to preserve the privacy of users, but in contrast to other implementations,

16698-403: The usage of TraceTogether system would be limited to large events with 500 participants, food and beverages outlets, and nightlife entertainment establishments with dancing facilities. The distribution of the tokens was scaled back from 1 July 2022 as the demand for the token fell. On 9 February 2023, authorities announced that the system was no longer required. The public was encouraged to return

16836-469: The user is requested to grant relevant permissions such as Bluetooth. Android users are additionally required to grant Location permission as Bluetooth can be used to derive location information when combined with beacons in fixed locations. To trace users the Ministry of Health (MOH) issues time sensitive anonymous temporary IDs that are used to identify the patient to all third parties. When two users of

16974-617: The user to enable the system or publicize a positive result through the system, and apps using the system are prohibited from collecting location data. As an additional measure, the companies stated that it would sunset the protocol by-region once they determine that it is "no longer needed". The Electronic Frontier Foundation showed concerns the protocol was vulnerable to "linkage attacks", where sufficiently capable third parties who had recorded beacon traffic may retroactively be able to turn this information into tracking information, for only areas in which they had already recorded beacons, for

17112-418: The world and its development encouraged the development of similar apps in other countries. The app has raised significant concerns about the privacy of those who use the app, especially due to a lack of decentralised report processing and access to the data by police. However, the app states it has several features to ensure users' privacy, such as regularly rotating users' IDs and storing limited data. Despite

17250-460: Was "from our view, simply a better and more effective public health tool", and that they would be required to phase out ABTraceTogether if they did switch. British Columbia has also declined to adopt COVID Alert, with provincial health officer Bonnie Henry stating that COVID Alert was too "non-specific". Australia's officials have stated its COVIDSafe , which is based on Singapore's BlueTrace , will not be shifting from manual intervention. In

17388-448: Was 75% of the population. With the issuance of the device, the government aimed to achieve at least 70% of the population using either the TraceTogether Token or app. Upon the announcement of the physical device, there was a public backlash against the physical device initiative, with a petition launched to protest against the development of the device over concerns about potential privacy issues. The Singapore People's Party also released

17526-408: Was a higher than expected demand after the news of mandatory usage of TraceTogether was released. Authorities also did not expect that residents would travel to different distribution points island-wide to collect the tokens and had suspended collection for a day on 28 October 2020 to rework the distribution strategy. The collection of the token at the community centres could only be made by residents in

17664-469: Was a year end review issued by Google in December 2020: "we plan to keep you updated here with new information again next year". Nothing has however been issued on the one year anniversary of the launch of the “Exposure Notification Interface” API in spite of important changes on the pandemic front such as vaccination, variants , digital health passports, app adoption challenges as well as growing interest for tracking QR codes (and notifying from that basis) on

17802-585: Was based on the Covid Watch app released in Arizona. August 19, 2020 (released) November 9, 2020 (statewide) Some countries, such as France, have pursued centralized approaches to digital contact tracing, in order to maintain records of personal information that can be used to assist in investigating cases. The French government asked Apple in April 2020 to allow apps to perform Bluetooth operations in

17940-747: Was established on 1 August 1993 with the enactment of the National Heritage Board Act. Section 3 of the Act states: "There shall be established a body to be known as the National Heritage Board which shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and shall, by that name, be capable of—(a) suing and being sued; (b) acquiring, owning, holding, developing and disposing of property, both movable and immovable ; and (c) doing and suffering all such acts or things as bodies corporate may lawfully do or suffer." The functions of

18078-461: Was introduced in 1877 by letters patent issued by the Crown , Composed of "such persons and constituted in such manner as may be directed" by royal instructions, it existed to advise the governor and wielded no executive power. The governor was required to consult the executive council on all affairs of importance unless they were too urgent to be laid before it, or if reference to it would prejudice

18216-568: Was not unique to TraceTogether and that under the same law, other forms of sensitive data like phone or banking records could also have their privacy regulations overruled. Desmond Tan emphasised that access to TraceTogether data remained restricted without authorisation. This point was reiterated by K Shanmugam , who said that the police will restrict the use of TraceTogether to "very serious offences" like murder and terrorism, only after careful consideration and discretion. In addition, Balakrishnan said that TraceTogether programme will be stood down once

18354-525: Was passed by the end of the session. Singapore's reversal of initial promises regarding police access to TraceTogether data was cited as one of the reasons for resistance to the Hong Kong's COVID-19 contact-tracing application, LeaveHomeSafe . Government of Singapore [REDACTED] The government of Singapore is defined by the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore to consist of

18492-444: Was ratified by Calcutta on 4 March 1825. Between 1819 and 1826, Singapore was headed by two Residents of Singapore in succession, Maj.-Gen. William Farquhar and Dr. John Crawfurd . In 1826, Malacca, Penang and Singapore were amalgamated into the Straits Settlements , which were made a Crown colony with effect from 1 April 1867. The colony was governed by a governor together with a legislative council . An executive council

18630-550: Was replaced by Lim Yew Hock . The following year, Lim led another delegation to the UK for further talks on self-government. This time, agreement was reached on the composition of an Internal Security Council. Other constitutional arrangements were swiftly settled in 1958, and on 1 August the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the State of Singapore Act 1958 , granting the colony full internal self-government. Under Singapore's new constitution which came into force on 3 June 1959,

18768-490: Was revested in the Yang di-Pertuan Negara of Singapore. The Republic of Singapore Independence Act 1965 then vested the executive authority of Singapore in the newly created post of President, and made it exercisable by him or by the Cabinet or by any Minister authorised by the Cabinet. The PAP has been repeatedly returned to power by voters and has thus formed the Cabinet since Singapore's 1959 general election . The Government

18906-619: Was second only to New Zealand in the Asia-Pacific region. On the other hand, the Government has been criticised for using unfair election tactics, such as discouraging voting for opposition parties in the 2006 general election by stating that wards that elect opposition candidates will receive state-subsidized improvements to public housing only after all PAP-held wards have been attended to. It has also been accused of violating freedom of speech through Ministers bringing defamation suits against opposition politicians, and by restricting

19044-669: Was the Governor of Bencoolen (now Bengkulu , Indonesia ), entered into a preliminary agreement with the Temenggung of Johor , Abdul Rahman Sri Maharajah, for the British East India Company to establish a " factory " or trading post on the island of Singapore . This was confirmed by another agreement signed by Raffles, the Temenggung and Sultan Hussein Shah on 6 February. In June 1823 Singapore ceased to be

#874125