Aarogya Setu- Privacy and Issues

With the outbreak of Global Pandemic COVID-19, many nations have made it necessary for its citizens to download Corona Tracking App which may help the Government to keep a track of patients and may help to reduce the extent of spread of virus.

A similar Corona Tracking App by the name of Aarogya Setu meaning ‘Bridge to Health’ is launched and mandated by Indian Government. Aarogya Setu app uses technologies like Bluetooth and GPS to let users know if they have been near a person with Covid-19 by scanning a database of known cases of infection. Now, its been downloaded over 100 Million times on Google Play.

Noida, a suburb of the capital, Delhi, has made it compulsory for all residents to have the app, saying they can be jailed for six months for not complying.

Food delivery start-ups such as Zomato and Swiggy have also made it mandatory for all staff.

Since then, the concern of privacy is being cooked up in the minds of users as the app asks for personal details like name, age, gender and travel history. While the government press claims like “the app has been built with privacy as a core principle” and the processing of contact tracing and risk assessment is done in an “anonymised manner”. Users are still not sure about the need of severe actions against not using the app.

Ways in which Aarogya Setu claims it protects User’s data

If you reach for Privacy FAQs in the app, it specifies the ways in which it handles private information.

1. Personal information is immediately anonymized and all the subsequent transactions are related through a Device Identification Number(DiD) that is assigned by the Aarogya Setu server at time of registration.
2. The contact tracing and location information is stored locally on the mobile device. The information is only uploaded to the server if the user has been tested positive for COVID-19, else the information will be erased from the device automatically in 30 days.
3. If a person is tested positive, the information will also be deleted after 45 days post recovery.

In some ways these clarifications helps users to keep their calm, authorities are suggesting to make it optional from mandatory since the app can be fooled easily.

Recently a news popped up quoting, “Banglore based Ethical Hacker hacked into Aarogya Setu app in just 4 hours“, which clearly is just a click-bait which you’ll realize when read about what this genius did can be easily done by a 4 year old, but we aren’t here for bashing anyone! right?

People can provide false details to the app as there is no to testify the details which is currently a big problem faced by the app. But people need to understand that there is no good and intelligence in hiding the symptoms if you have them.

Right now Aarogya Setu is not made Open-Source but the Govt. assures that it will be made open source with time, which will increase the chances of improvements.