The police are actively trawling the Internet for websites offering vice or unlicensed money-lending services here, in a bid to arrest the growing problem of loan sharks and online vice.
Tender documents seen by The Straits Times (ST) show the Singapore Police Force (SPF) had requested a service to "conduct proactive trawling of the Internet for vice-related and unlicensed money-lending related websites" and rank them according to traffic volume.
The service should also be able to monitor monthly access to such sites via mobile or non-mobile channels and track the number of vice workers advertised on each site.
The tender was awarded to StarHub on July 29, with the service due to be delivered last month.
In response to queries from ST, the police said the trial initiative is to "see how technology can be better leveraged to improve SPF's capabilities in detecting such websites".
"Once detected, SPF will continue to work with the relevant authorities to take appropriate actions against these websites."
The service comes as online vice and loan-sharking activities have spiked in recent years. Unlicensed money-lending cases hit a five-year high last year, up by some 33 per cent from the year before to 751. In 2018, 55 per cent of women arrested for vice were involved with online syndicates, up from 16 per cent in 2015.
The use of such a proactive "trawling service" is not new, said experts. Mr Ash Ang, director of IT consultancy firm Imagenz, said other firms that use such services, which in the industry is referred to as "web crawling", include those that want to track their competitors' prices on e-commerce stores.
Law enforcement agencies in other countries also employ similar technology. In Malaysia, a police unit monitors the traffic at pornographic websites, especially those that offer child porn, and can locate in real time users surfing them.
However, users here need not fear they will be punished for accessing unlicensed money-lending or vice websites, said experts.
Mr Lim Kian Kim, head of cyber security, privacy and data protection at law firm Harry Elias Partnership who goes by the initials K.K., said visiting such websites is not illegal, as they are open to the public. But he added that there are sectoral rules governing the operation of such sites in Singapore, citing the Moneylenders Act that regulates money-lending activities in approved places of business.
The Women's Charter was also amended last year to extend powers to ensnare syndicates operating online vice sites from overseas.
Mr Lim further noted that shutting down any site outside of Singapore can be a "long and tedious task". He said "there are many laws in other countries that do not allow you to shut down sites for a variety of reasons, including exercising their constitutionally protected rights", adding that hosts may even mount a legal challenge.
"Shutting them down may not be so simple," said Mr Lim.
