Vigilance is essential with the resumption of activities post-lockdown. How to fight the ninja bug? Pending vaccines and treatments, measures include:
- Distancing, hygiene, protection
- Contact tracing and testing
- Treatment and rehabilitation
- Policies and SOPs
Bluetooth Contact Tracing
For contact tracing, SG is proposing complementing its TraceTogether app with Bluetooth tokens (coin-like portable gadget). How might one of these work? As we speculate:
- Must be brought along when going out
- Has a serial number (registered to the user by the authorities)
- Detects tokens and beacons which are in close proximity
- Data logged: serial number of other device, date, time, duration
- Data stored in memory, readable by authorities only
- Beacons can be used to mark places (stations, restaurants etc)
Why Contact Tracing
- To head off a second wave (or mutant bug 2.0)
- To not enter further rounds of lockdowns which will be ruinous
- To quickly identify potential bug sources and destinations
- The data in a token is, conceptually, a line
- The data of another token is another line
- The intersection of two lines is a point, a possible source
What About Privacy
- Data stays at the tokens
- Only when there is probable cause, authorities will ask for the data
- Folks are already being tracked by apps, cookies, telco towers, etc
- Bluetooth tracking, as proposed, is less intrusive
Notes
- Different from the wristbands used in HK, KR etc
- Which are for the enforcement of self quarantine
- Wristbands and tokens best suited for city states and cities
- Harder to implement on a country basis