Public Service Announcement: Install TraceTogether app to help reduce virus spread in Singapore
The COVID-19 virus won’t be going away for a while, especially imported cases are on the rise these days.
The tech arm of the Singapore government GovTech has just created a nifty new app call TraceTogether that aims to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus through community-driven contact tracing.
It is available on App Store and Google Play.
How it works
According to GovTech, the app makes use of the phone’s Bluetooth signals to detect other TraceTogether phones, estimate the distance and duration of these encounters.
The records are encrypted and stored locally on the user’s phone for 21 days which is the estimated maximum incubation period of the virus.
Screengrab of the TraceTogether app
What about my privacy?
GovTech claims that data is not shared in any way until when required by the Ministry of Health (MOH) for contact tracing purposes. Only the user can authorise the uploading his/her TraceTogether data to MOH, after which the data will be deciphered to get mobile numbers of the user’s close contacts within a period of time.
You can also view the below video by GovTech showing how it works.
The more, the merrier
The app will only become more effective when more users install the app and leave their Bluetooth function turned on since it is after all a community-driven effort.
Everyone on our team has gone forth to install the app and we hope our readers (that’s you) can do so too after reading this.
Let’s all play a part to cut down the virus spread and stay healthy and safe together in Singapore.
Learn more from TraceTogether
