Wearable TraceTogether Token: 57% Willing To Wear It. You Leh?

Although things are slowly going back to normal with the start of Safe Reopening Phase 2 tomorrow, we're not out of the woods yet when it comes to COVID-19. To address the ongoing need for effective contact tracing, the Singapore government is planning to roll out a wearable tracking token that can be used as an alternative to the TraceTogether app, which often does not work properly on Apple devices.

Predictably, this announcement garnered a rather polarising response from Singaporeans. According to a YouGov survey released today, 57% of Singaporeans indicated that they would be willing to wear or carry such a token.

61% of those over the age of 55 are willing to carry a tracking token while respondents aged 35 to 44 are far less willing, with only 52% of them responding positively. In addition, women (58%) are more willing to carry a token than men (55%).

It appears that the biggest concern by detractors is privacy infringement, with 58% expressing concern about their privacy. This is followed by other issues like inconvenience (43%), lack of user-friendliness (27%) and doubts about the token's effectiveness (20%). (Never mind that wearing a token is probably more effective than, you know, not wearing one at all.)

Overall, 45% of Singaporeans indicate that they would be willing to trust the government with their private data. However, there is a vast divide between those who are and aren't willing to wear the token. While 64% of those willing to wear the token trust the government with their data, only 20% of those who aren't willing to wear one feel the same way.

However, regardless of how much they trust the government, 42% of Singaporeans would be willing to forgo their privacy for the time being in the name of battling COVID-19 as a nation. As with before, this differs greatly between those willing and unwilling to wear tracking tokens (62% vs 15%).

Meanwhile, 47% agree that Singaporeans shouldn't be afraid of wearing the token if they have nothing to hide. This sentiment is echoed more strongly by older Singaporeans, with 52% of those aged 55 and above agreeing with this statement compared to only 41% of those aged 25 to 34 (Probably because you're more likely to see younger Singaporeans gallivanting about carelessly and violating safe distancing guidelines than ah gongs and ah mas).

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