While not surprising, this is SO FUCKING SHORT SIGHTED. It will greatly discourage the use of technologies that protect people. https://t.co/pFLccadIi4

— Mike Masnick (@mmasnick) January 4, 2021

WTF?!?

Singapore allows the police to use peoples COVID19 contract tracing data for criminal investigations even though it was initially said that it would only be used to fight the disease! And It is even mandatory for every citizen to use the app.https://t.co/LVnygmif2M

— Hans Moog (@hus_qy) January 5, 2021

As foretold by prophecy. https://t.co/p8EhcJV6lv

— Eva (@evacide) January 4, 2021

This is a super dangerous trend. I wish I could say I was surprised, but we know from experience that if the data exists, it can and will be misused, sooner or later. The only solution is to not have the data in the first place. https://t.co/d5C8K85Bwt

— Ola Bini (@olabini) January 4, 2021

Governments doing "psych" jokes are not funny https://t.co/UTsoO9UMnO

— Catalin Cimpanu (@campuscodi) January 4, 2021

This. Despite assurances that data would "never be accessed unless the user tests positive" and only then by “a very limited, restricted team of contact tracers". https://t.co/ikI9U1RdTt

— The Web Foundation (@webfoundation) January 5, 2021

When police use #COVID19 criminalize contact tracing, people will. it undermines public health infrastructure in a pandemic. This is why it was so crucial to enact #Privacy protections for contract tracing here in NY, but we need national protections too. https://t.co/hQkyDIKrpV

— Albert Fox Cahn? (He/Him) (@FoxCahn) January 4, 2021

While this is a stark example, it's frustrating to see it treated it as surprising.

This is why people talked about privacy, and why privacy-centrism in public tech debates is so dangerous. We won't tech our way out of unchecked government power. Quite the opposite. https://t.co/ja7fp5YscA

— Sean McDonald (@seanmmcdonald) January 4, 2021

This was always about total control, case in point https://t.co/5Wk7MCp5qq

— Luke Rudkowski (@Lukewearechange) January 5, 2021

Mission creep is all around.
The accountability and safeguards we asked for since the beginning prove essential now.

How are things in your country/state? https://t.co/ElGWQdHOzr

— Javier Pallero (@javierpallero) January 4, 2021

I'm not sure the data would be all that useful compared to other data they'd have access to (like check in data, etc).

But will have the potential to be misused (like misidentifying people who might have been in another car in traffic or something) https://t.co/26tA4GsFEa

— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) January 4, 2021

Public health and policing should. never. mix. It's the historic and contemporary associations and relationship between healthcare and punitive and racist governance that has already done so much damage to our COVID-19 response and eroded public health in the U.S. https://t.co/Me426c7zeh

— Matthew Guariglia (@mguariglia) January 4, 2021

This is a very big shift. Ugh, ugh https://t.co/IvTiuKWlyV

— Kate Bevan (@katebevan) January 4, 2021

Once again the benevolent collection of data turns into a tool for surveillance. They always promise the data won't be used for anything other than X. They always break their promises. https://t.co/4OqkEWoxbb

— Pamela Morgan (@pamelawjd) January 4, 2021

We should call this brand new, never before seen phenomenon in surveillance technology “mission creep.” https://t.co/SELBYFxX0O

— Ryan Calo (@rcalo) January 4, 2021

Every country seeking to use digital contact tracing needs to give their population assurances that this won't happen in their jurisdiction. Aus-style legislative protections could be used here in NZ, prohibiting alt use of contact tracing data in a public health response order. https://t.co/TxuOJEff4j

— Andrew Chen (@andrewtychen) January 4, 2021

Lol. Coming to an authoritarian regime near you soon. No sympathy for the suckers who downloaded the covid app. https://t.co/BzBe9rTVmz

— Rob Hutchinson #unlockdown (@RobHutchinson8) January 5, 2021

Governments everywhere: This is an emergency, so you can trust us with this latest intrusion on your civil liberties ... it will be temporary and only used for one purpose.

Also governments everywhere: Suckers. https://t.co/fcQ3sA5Ofh

— Shane Dingman (@shanedingman) January 4, 2021

Anyone advocating in favour of government backdoors: this is what will happen. And it WILL happen. https://t.co/d8cvTsOKC7

— Siguza (@s1guza) January 4, 2021

If anyone believed Singapore's dictators would do otherwise, they were foolish. Nonetheless, this is a disgusting betrayal. https://t.co/vgOCVOWzgE

— Dan Gillmor (@dangillmor) January 4, 2021

Surprising literally nobody, contact tracing data will be available to law enforcement.

Oh, and mandatory too... https://t.co/GNWVtZCaJp

— Jake Williams (@MalwareJake) January 4, 2021

Post-collection controls, to the extent they are voluntary/non-regulated, don't do enough to protect privacy or other rights. Both governments and private industry have a history of grabbing at any data that's available. https://t.co/ErCQy0eTbu

— Amie Stepanovich (@astepanovich) January 4, 2021

ME: NOT SHOCKED. AT ALL. https://t.co/mmwInTGQ2B

— Elizabeth Joh (@elizabeth_joh) January 4, 2021

Automated contact tracing itself may not have been a huge success here in the US, but huge props to the Apple and Google employees who helped to turn us away from this. https://t.co/rvDES3dvn8

— Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) January 4, 2021

hey wow data collected for good cause is now being used for bad cause

no one could have predicted this https://t.co/MvgzrAtkHj

— Neeraj K. Agrawal (@NeerajKA) January 4, 2021

Ugly way to ring in the new year. Reminder that Singapore is an authoritarian state: https://t.co/8DOGJIzQUQ
The USA & liberal democracies must show alternate, open models work for tracing (like New Zealand & Taiwan) not put civil liberties more at risk: https://t.co/uw68iwGgnw https://t.co/rNyOky76FP pic.twitter.com/R1ffAZsxZ8

— Alex Howard (@digiphile) January 4, 2021

Wow. In a massive u-turn, Singapore's government now says police *are* allowed to access citizens' COVID-19 contact tracing data for criminal investigations. Worse, the government announced recently that contact tracing will be mandatory from this year. https://t.co/0R9f0U8nRC

— Zack Whittaker (@zackwhittaker) January 4, 2021

Ugh. What everybody feared would happen.

Technology designed to ease the health emergency opportunistically used to usher in surveillance capabilities. https://t.co/kZVeLLbghI

— Hannah Murphy (@MsHannahMurphy) January 4, 2021

it's wild that so much data privacy policy is set by whatever the responsible parties feel like at the moment

privacy is essential to trusting contact tracing apps, but when a government can just change its mind on a whim, these promises mean nothing https://t.co/DGrEP8o85Z

— alfred ? (@alfredwkng) January 4, 2021

#Singapore jumping in to prove the point against big data using citizen data. THIS is the reason we have strong data protection laws and why the #CoronaApp is built the way it is: https://t.co/vhI3X1AyMx
Meanwhile the "law-and-order"-folks are trying to do a Singapore.

— ?Jochen Mader ?? (@codepitbull) January 5, 2021

Singapore police can access COVID-19 contact tracing data for criminal investigations https://t.co/jbDiUGSluM

— Anonymous Operations (@AnonOpsSE) January 5, 2021

"Singapore has confirmed its law enforcers will be able to access the country's COVID contact tracing data to aid in their criminal investigations. To date, more than 4.2M residents or 78% of the local population have adopted the contact tracing app..."https://t.co/nKrRGAam15

— Aaron Ginn (@aginnt) January 5, 2021

When police use #COVID19 criminalize contact tracing, people will. it undermines public health infrastructure in a pandemic. This is why it was so crucial to enact #Privacy protections for contract tracing here in NY, but we need national protections too. https://t.co/hQkyDIKrpV

— Albert Fox Cahn? (He/Him) (@FoxCahn) January 4, 2021

#CovidApps and surveillance society. A renewed attack on privacy and freedom ?
Singapore police can access COVID-19 contact tracing data for criminal investigations https://t.co/ZwwedHkMSx a través de @ZDNet & @eileenscyu

— Delia Ferreira (@DeliaFerreira) January 5, 2021

If you want to look into why every self-respecting cryptographer was against the centralized #TousAntiCovid database of everyone's COVID19 status from @PrivaticsInria, look no further:

Singapore's centralized COVID19 database, is used by the police. https://t.co/H0zLsKR8xU

— harryhalpin (@harryhalpin) January 5, 2021

Singapore’s COVID-19 Contact Tracing App Will Be Used To Help Criminal Investigations https://t.co/v1cPzCiBrC >>> https://t.co/2FO2ai4x9M #digitalhealth #industry40 #healthcare #AI #wearables #healthtech #mhealth #IoT pic.twitter.com/6VqiJee0nH

— Dr Timos Papagatsias (@_timos_) January 5, 2021