KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 26): The government has introduced the MySejahtera Trace (MySJTrace) feature in the MySejahtera application to detect close contacts of positive Covid 19 cases using Bluetooth technology. 

A joint statement issued by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) and the Ministry of Health (MoH) said MySJ Trace is available from Saturday (Dec 25), and the public is also advised to update their MySejahtera application. 

"To ensure the effectiveness of activities to detect close contacts of positive cases of Covid-19 infections, users must activate the Bluetooth function of the device, all the time. 

"When a person is confirmed positive Covid-19, there will be a notification from the MySejahtera application to obtain permission to share the close contacts’ information. And if the individual provides consent, MySejahtera will provide access to the Department of Health to conduct a risk assessment of close contacts' information," the ministries noted. 

The ministries said the MySJ Trace application uses an anonymised Unique User ID (UUID) and does not collect user information or geo-location. 

"This data is only accessible by the MOH and is stored on the user's device for a period of 14 days. Overall, the contact tracking and data storage process is also secure and its secrecy is guaranteed by the government,” the ministries added. 

Furthermore, with this new MySJ Trace feature, the government will also stop the "checkout’" function in the MySejahtera application.