Tag Archives: contact tracing

Singapore plans wearable virus-tracing device for all

By John Geddie and Aradhana Aravindan

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore plans to give a wearable device that will identify people who had interacted with carriers of coronavirus to each of its 5.7 million residents, in what could become one of the most comprehensive contact-tracing efforts globally.

Testing of the small devices, which can be worn on the end of a lanyard or carried in a handbag, follows limited take-up of an earlier smartphone-based system and has further fuelled privacy concerns about contact tracing technology.

The tiny city-state, with one of the highest COVID-19 caseloads in Asia, is one of many countries trying to use technology to allow them to safely reopen their economies.

Singapore will soon roll out the device, which does not depend on a smartphone, and “may then distribute it to everyone in Singapore,” Vivian Balakrishnan, the minister in charge of the city-state’s smart nation initiative, said on Friday.

The government did not specify whether carrying the device would be mandatory.

The government’s earlier TraceTogether app encountered problems, especially on Apple <AAPL.O> devices where its operating system suspends Bluetooth scanning when the app runs in the background. Balakrishnan said repeated discussions with Apple failed to resolve the problem.

The pivot to wearables is a signal that Singapore has no immediate plans to adopt contact-tracing technology from Apple and Google rolled out last month, which has several restrictions designed to protect users’ privacy.

Michael Veale, a lecturer in the law on digital rights and regulation at University College London who has been involved in developing contact-tracing apps, said Singapore’s move into wearables presented “accountability and privacy concerns.”

“Users will likely find it hard to scrutinize what the device is actually doing, or what information the back-end server uses or links,” Veale said.

Singapore has said data collected through its earlier app is encrypted and stored locally in the user’s phone, and will only be transferred to authorities if the individual is confirmed to be infected with COVID-19.

Some businesses have already adopted wearables for contact tracing in locations where smartphone usage is restricted, while governments like Bahrain and Hong Kong have used them for monitoring people under quarantine.

Vendors pitching wearables include Accent Advanced Systems, Kerlink, Microshare Inc and TRACEsafe Technologies Inc, though the companies have declined to comment on potential customers.

David Su, CEO of wireless chips firm Atmosic, said he expected “multiple governments, if not all governments in Asia” to adopt wearables because they are an affordable and reliable way to ensure widespread automated contact tracing.

A simple wristband with a Bluetooth chip, battery and some memory could cost about $10, or possibly less, according to vendors.

(Reporting by John Geddie and Aradhana Aravindan in Singapore; Paresh Dave in San Francisco and Douglas Busvine in Frankfurt; Editing by Robert Birsel, Toby Chopra and William Mallard)

Tech firms deploy Bluetooth chips for coronavirus contact tracing in office

By Paresh Dave

OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) – Technology companies are developing their own contact tracing systems to help prevent coronavirus outbreaks in their offices as countries begin to ease lockdown measures and a return to the workplace is in the offing.

Silicon Valley company Juniper Networks Inc plans to equip its about 10,000 employees with work identification badge holders that have a Bluetooth chip that will help to record a worker’s movements and interactions in the office, company vice president Jeff Aaron said in an interview.

The system employs Wi-Fi routers and access points from Juniper Network’s unit Mist that will communicate with the Bluetooth chips on the badges. The data collected will help determine which employees need to be tested and isolate after a colleague tests positive for the new coronavirus.

All U.S. states have eased virus lockdowns, but work-from-home remains the norm in California’s tech industry. California has reported more than 86,000 coronavirus cases and 3,500 deaths, the lowest tallies in the United States relative to the state’s large population.

Mist, which is a small but fast-growing Wi-Fi equipment maker, is selling its new system to other businesses through its annual subscription of $150 per access point, and about 25 customers are testing it, Aaron said.

He said businesses that are typically reluctant to spend on replacing older technology have indicated that significant funding is available for contact tracing in the workplace.

“They are saying: If this is a reason for me to rip out my old Wi-Fi and put in a Wi-Fi plus BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) solution and support contact tracing use cases, I can definitely get budget for that,” he said.

Aaron said customers could skip the Bluetooth component in its system, but still see when spaces such as conference rooms become overcrowded by tracking the number of Wi-Fi-connected devices.

Several software companies have announced tools during the pandemic to automate workplace contact tracing and help customers avoid disruptions.

Among others touting workplace tracking tools, Slovakia-based Symbiosy said its own software, along with sensors from technology partner Quuppa, helped identify about 40 people to test after an employee became infected last month.

“Manually, we would not even have been able to get that precision,” said Tomas Melisko, head of real estate company HB Reavis’ Symbiosy unit. “And we would need to have sent twice that many people for testing” if solely analyzing building access logs.

(Reporting by Paresh Dave; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)