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SINGAPORE: Singapore must use technology for law enforcement judiciously, and privacy concerns need to be taken into consideration, said Coordinating Minister for Social Policies Ong Ye Kung on Tuesday (Apr 21).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Ong was speaking to reporters in Hangzhou, China, following the 5th Singapore-China Social Governance Forum on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The forum is one of the key bilateral cooperation platforms between Singapore and China. It provides an opportunity for officials from both countries to exchange views on issues related to social governance.<\/span><\/p>\n Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli, Minister of State for Manpower and Culture, Community and Youth Dinesh Vasu Dash, Minister of State for National Development and Trade and Industry Alvin Tan, as well as Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Law and Social and Family Development Eric Chua,<\/span> also attended the forum.<\/p>\n Responding to a question on the use of technology in social governance and the implications on privacy, Mr Ong pointed to the use of cameras in common areas of Housing and Development Board (HDB) blocks to tackle the issue of loansharks.<\/p>\n “As a result, the numbers came down. And I think if you ask most residents, they welcome it, (there’s) not much infringement on people’s privacy, but at least it deterred some of these illegal money lenders,” he said.<\/p>\n Mr Ong said the way technology is used and the acceptance by the public are important. “Essentially, we have to use it judiciously,” he added.<\/p>\n He said there are spectacles in China that are linked to a database, such that if the wearer sees a murderer, the wearer would be alerted.<\/p>\n “If you do that in Singapore, maybe people will have a reaction,” he said. “The use case is important. Technology allows us to … move into many areas, but our use case is much more simple.”<\/p>\n He noted that Mr Masagos wore a pair of spectacles during the trip that would translate spoken Mandarin into English, and display subtitles for him.<\/p>\n Citing one of his Chinese counterparts, Mr Ong said technology is a “double-edged sword”.\u00a0<\/p>\n “By the time enforcers are tying their shoelaces, criminals have already finished the marathon because of technology,” he added. “They use technology much more, unfortunately, efficiently and rigorously in committing crimes.”\u00a0<\/p>\n In terms of technology and its impact on social governance, the impact is probably more indirect, he noted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n