Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean said on 5 April at the Home Team Science and Technology Agency’s tech summit that surveillance cameras and facial recognition technology is a double edged sword, it can keep us safer but also raises concerns about privacy.
He said that “we need to establish proper guidelines and standards on the use of technology to provide ample protection and to preserve trust and confidence.
Only with these in place can we make the best use of what technology can offer us, to improve our capability to protect our societies and people from the new dangers.”
Teo added that Singapore’s network of police cameras allow the police to sense-make and respond faster to incidents that are happening in real-time.
This has deterred crime and also reduced the time needed to solve crimes significantly.
The Singapore Police Force will extend their network of surveillance cameras to more than 200,000 by the year 2030.
Teo also revealed that to date, the police cameras have helped the police force solve more than 6,000 cases.
However, he called the use of technology a “double-edged sword” – although it has helped us deal with threats such as international terrorism and online scams, it can also be exploited by criminal organisations.
He added that Singapore’s agencies need new approaches to fight cybercrime as well as physical crimes, and that the world needs new global rules and frameworks because cybercrime is borderless.
He then urged for more cooperation internationally, saying that the TechX summit was a good example for them to share their best practices and experiences.
He said “more importantly, we need international cooperation to combat transnational and cybercrime, given their growing prevalence.
These crimes exploit the gaps and interstices in our defences at the borders, where different legal regimes and jurisdictions meet.”