Re: A Moment of Silence #Foremembrance Today, TraceTogether

Folks,

First I am happy to see some positive insights coming from this 
discussion after the initial sniping.  Thanks @joe for comments 
regarding taxation and identity.

I live in Singapore and use the TraceTogether app.  It is opt-in and 
decentralised.  The contact data is only stored on the owner's device, 
in encrypted form.  According to design and packet sniffing by testers, 
there is no beacon or phone home capability.

I'm not aware of any actual trace backs done yet - the app was only 
launched a week ago.  But in theory the way it works is the owner of the 
device grants permission to the MOH to decrypt the data, which reveals a 
list of phone numbers.  At that point, either these are correlated with 
other tracing data or used by MOH to make direct contact with 
individuals possibly exposed to Coronavirus.  Keep in mind that those 
contacted would have already opted in to the application and sharing of 
data.

Asians are generally quite acquiescent to such disclosures provided they 
trust the counterparty, even where there have been data breaches in the 
past.  Government and telcos are widely trusted in Singapore.

Regards, Bill Claxton (williamc@nextid.com <mailto:williamc@nextid.com>)
LinkedIn, Facebook, Telegram, Slack, Skype, Twitter or Gmail: wmclaxton
SG Voice, Text or Whatsapp: +65-9012-4327
US Voice, Text or Voicemail: +1-415-797-7348


On 3/28/2020 11:57 AM, Kevin O'Brien wrote:
> I think they have a pretty design considering their constraints, at 
> least of what they have claimed to be doing:
> https://www.tracetogether.gov.sg/common/privacystatement
>
> One way to decentralize would be to implement on top of a 
> decentralized ledger with a proof of authority system participated in 
> by various governments and/or non-profits as a consortium. Because you 
> are only storing interaction events between ids, not sure an external 
> data store is even needed for encrypted data. The only tricky part is 
> ensuring there is a way to notify the identifiers that came into 
> contact with an individual who tests (and registers in the system) as 
> positive without giving up the identifying info. I think as long as 
> the system only supports "pulls", then basically only you as the 
> holder of a secret or certificate to unlock your id could check 
> regularly if it had a contact event with a positive individual. 
> Probably other ways to solve it though.
>
> On Fri, Mar 27, 2020 at 8:20 PM Moses Ma 
> <moses.ma@futurelabconsulting.com 
> <mailto:moses.ma@futurelabconsulting.com>> wrote:
>
>     Re: surveillance vs liberty...
>
>     How do y’all feel about Singapore’s TraceTogether?
>     See:
>     https://www.businessinsider.com/singapore-coronavirus-app-tracking-testing-no-shutdown-how-it-works-2020-3
>     Also:
>     https://www.tech.gov.sg/media/technews/tracetogether-behind-the-scenes-look-at-its-development-process
>
>     How would you design a fully decentralized contact tracer?
>
>     Moses
>
>
>     -
>     *Moses Ma | FutureLab Consulting Inc*
>     moses.ma@futurelabconsulting.com
>     <mailto:moses.ma@futurelabconsulting.com> | moses@ngenven.com
>     <mailto:moses@ngenven.com>
>     v +1.415.952.7888 <tel:+1.415.952.7888> | m +1.415.568.1068
>     <tel:+1.415.568.1068> | skype mosesma
>
>
>
>>     On Mar 27, 2020 at 9:44 AM, <Ian Smith <mailto:ian@vidicode.pro>>
>>     wrote:
>>
>>     proposing anti covid-19 protests to avoid saving lives is part of
>>     the ethos here? I wasn't aware that preventing the countermeasure
>>     to pandemic response was what this group was about
>>
>>     On Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 6:10 AM Manu Sporny
>>     <msporny@digitalbazaar.com <mailto:msporny@digitalbazaar.com>> wrote:
>>
>>         On 3/27/20 8:41 AM, Daniel Hardman wrote:
>>         > I will try to join you. Thank you for suggesting it.
>>
>>         I can't join, but thank you for the message and I'll observe
>>         the moment
>>         of silence, Christopher.
>>
>>         Visiting the memorial in person with people from this group
>>         was moving
>>         and a reminder that we need to keep these painful lessons
>>         from the past
>>         in mind as we build out these systems.
>>
>>         > @Ian: I share your frustration with the surveillance
>>         economy, but feel
>>         > that your comment steps away from the ethos of our group.
>>
>>         I'd like to underscore Daniel's comment. Many of us are in
>>         this group
>>         because we share in the frustration with the current surveillance
>>         economy. That said, the frustration is no excuse to tear down
>>         what
>>         others in the community are building. Your criticism was not
>>         constructive, please refrain from doing that again.
>>
>>         We need to focus on helping each other build the world that
>>         we want to
>>         see realized.
>>
>>         -- manu
>>
>>         -- 
>>         Manu Sporny - https://www.linkedin.com/in/manusporny/
>>         Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
>>         blog: Veres One Decentralized Identifier Blockchain Launches
>>         https://tinyurl.com/veres-one-launches
>>