Are you serious??? You guys obviously either have blinkers on or are being selectively blind.
You want Singapore to implement this sort of gold standard???
Coronavirus: Under surveillance and confined at home in Taiwan
24 March 2020
Milo Hsieh is an American University student living in Taiwan under quarantine. The BBC asked him to write this article
after one of his tweets about having his movements tracked by a satellite-based system was widely shared.
I did not expect two police officers to come knocking at my door at 08:15 when I was still asleep in my bed on Sunday morning.
My phone briefly ran out of battery at 07:30, and in less than an hour, four different local administrative units had called. A patrol was dispatched to check my whereabouts. A text was sent notifying that the government had lost track of me, and warned me of potential arrest if I had broken quarantine.
I returned to Taiwan last Thursday to experience the island's zero-risk take on coronavirus.
Since I was coming back from Europe, I am subjected to a mandatory 14 days home quarantine. Before I had my passport checked, I had to pass through a booth set up by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. I filled out a document detailing places I had visited in the last fortnight, my phone number, landline and address. They notified me that my phone would be "satellite-tracked" for enforcement.
The level of precaution taken in Taiwan is nothing like what I saw in Europe.
During the initial phase of lockdown in Belgium, which I had to leave after my study programme was cancelled, people still went out and lined up at fast food kiosks. Even as an outbreak was happening in northern Italy, I saw during my visit to London in the first weekend of March, that people were still going to pubs.
Here, I am not allowed to step outside the apartment. I was not allowed to take public transport on my way back, and had to take special "quarantine taxis." My entire family has to quarantine with me for two weeks. This includes Biscuit, our dog.
How does Taiwan's system work?
The island refers to its phone-tracking system as being an "electronic fence".
Rather than ask users to download a special app or wear a location-transmitting wristband - as has been the case in some East Asian countries - it uses existing phone signals to triangulate the owner's locations.
To ensure users comply, an alert is sent to the authorities if the handset is turned off for more than 15 minutes. More than 6,000 people subjected to home quarantine are simultaneously tracked this way.
And to check that the phone has not simply been left behind, officials phone users up to twice a day to check they have their mobile to hand, and to ask about their health.
Recently, many Taiwanese, especially students, have returned to the island, as their schools overseas have closed and life around the world has ground to a halt. Some see the mandatory quarantine they have to go through as a necessary measure.
Frank Tseng is among them. He is one of my friends at American University, and he recently returned from Washington DC.
Arrivals to Taiwan have to sign a pledge saying they will stay behind closed doors for a fortnight and keep a record of their temperature
"I feel like even though it's a pain for the citizens who are coming back, I understand that it's a necessary process many of us have to take to go home," he told me.
But some see the enforcement mechanism as problematic.
Paul Huang, a local freelance journalist who was working abroad, decided to not go back to Taiwan because of surveillance fears.
"The government openly stated your phone will be digitally tracked to enforce quarantine - in the same way the authority usually tracks suspected criminals," he explained.
"Except this time they don't have or need a court-issued warrant to spy on your phone.
"You are being suspected of a crime by virtue of having travelled overseas."
