Politics
Singapore Passes Law to Use Covid Tracing in Criminal Probes
By and
Updated on
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Minister defends use of data for serious crimes in parliament
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Retention period for the data could change on medical advice
The TraceTogether contact-tracing app in a taxi in Singapore. The new law allows access to contact tracing data under seven categories of serious crime including murder, rape and drug trafficking.
Photographer: Lauryn Ishak/BloombergSingapore passed legislation that will allow the government to use Covid-19 tracing data in certain criminal investigations, formalizing legal powers that had sparked unusual controversy.
The government introduced its TraceTogether technology last year during the early months of the pandemic, promising the data collected would be used only for coronavirus containment. Then in January, Singapore disclosed the app’s data had been tapped for a murder investigation and said it planned legislation to support such efforts.
