All travelers entering Singapore should wear mandatory monitoring devices

From August 11, all travellers entering Singapore should wear mandatory monitoring devices they are serving their stay-at-home notice with dedicated facilities. If anyone violates the rule can be fined up to $10,000 and may have to stay 6 months imprisoned.

The mandatory electronic monitoring device:

Since March, a stay-at-home notice (SHN) has been issued for all travellers entering Singapore. They have to stay at their chosen residents for 14 days. During these days COVID-19 tests will be done with dedicated facilities. Except for below 6-year-old children all travellers should wear the electronic monitoring device. This device will have the authority to ensure that the travellers are still staying at quarantine before the notice lift.

In a joint statement, the Immigration and Checkpoint Authority and the Ministries of Manpower and Education said that “the device will allow them to monitor those serving a stay-at-home notice more effectively”. 

How does it work? 

After clearing the traveller's immigration or quarantine place the device will be issued by the authority. After reaching out to the correct place the device will automatically activate. If not the authority will look for it.

The device works on GPS and Bluetooth to detect the location and the movement. The authority will send notifications to the device at times, the person wearing it has to reply it quickly. Any tamper on the device or removing it will blow an alarm.

Components: 

The mandatory electronic monitoring device has 3 components:

• a wearable wristband’
• the StayHome@SG mobile app, which needs to be installed on the person phone, and
• a gateway, which needs to be installed at the individual’s place of residence. Multiple gateways can be installed in larger homes.

As with any tracking device like it, there are of course privacy concerns. However, the authorities have confirmed that the data is end-to-end encrypted. Secondly, they have stated that the device itself does not hold any data.

- post by Riju Sharma