There was significant backlash to the announcement, despite Balakrishnan's explanation and acceptance of full responsibility. Some observers attributed this to the fact that the clarification was made 9 months after the data had already been used, and only in response to direct and repeated parliamentary questioning. Privacy concerns were raised by various experts with former Nominated Member of Parliament and Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan saying that "the news came across as the Government backtracking on its earlier assurance that TraceTogether would only be used for contact tracing" and "clearly undermines their trust and credibility, and could undermine its future efforts .... to keep COVID-19 under control".
