Back in early April, Sean ‘xobs’ Cross and I were contacted by the European Commission’s NGI program via NLnet to propose a privacy-protecting contact tracing hardware token. The resulting proposal is called “Simmel”. While not perfect, the salient privacy features of Simmel include:
- Strong isolation of user data. By disallowing sensor fusion with the smartphone, there is zero risk of GPS or other geolocation data being leaked. It is also much harder to do metadata-based attacks against user privacy.
- Citizens are firmly in control. Users are the physical keeper of their contact data; no third-party servers are involved, until they volunteer their data to an authority by surrendering the physical token. This means in an extreme case, a user has the option of physically destroying their token to erase their history.
- Citizens can temporarily opt-out. By simply twisting the cap of the token, users can power the token down at any time, thus creating a gap in their trace data (note: this feature is not present on the first prototypes).
- Randomized broadcast data. This is a protocol-level feature which we recommend to defeat the ability for third parties (perhaps an advertising agency or a hostile government) from piggy backing on the protocol to aggregate user locations for commercial or strategic benefit.
Can't switch off this physical token.
Forever monitoring you
What is that? A fishing rod light?
Many are holding on to the token like their precious.What is that? A fishing rod light?
Yes, I wear mine on my gold chain around on my neck. So proud of it.Many are holding on to the token like their precious.
Without it you can't even buy groceries .
Good to know you truly loves SingaporeYes, I wear mine on my gold chain around on my neck. So proud of it.
Yeah right... as if you don't knowWhat is that? A fishing rod light?
After that, they can trace where it wentdoes it vibrate? no need switch off, ladies can put in the cheebye,
side effect will be have more phua cheebyes......hahaha
Good to know you truly loves Singapore
Count on you