Anupreet Singh :
Technology again proven as a saviour, in diagnosing COVID-19 suspects and in helping nation in eradication of coronavirus pandemic. Arogya Setu , an application has been introduced to helps users identify whether they are at risk of the COVID-19 infection.
It also provides people with important information, including ways to avoid coronavirus and its symptoms.
‘The Arogya Setu app, is a sophisticated surveillance system, outsourced to a private operator, with no institutional oversight — raising serious data security & privacy concerns. Technology can help keep us safe; but fear must not be leveraged to track citizens without their consent,’ he said on Twitter.
The central government has made it mandatory for all its employees to download the app and urged private entitles to also ask their employees to use it.
Aarogya Setu continuously collects data on the location of the user and cross-references it with the Central government database to understand whether the user has come into contact with an infected person.
How does it work?
It asks for the name, phone number, profession, gender, age and a list of countries visited in the past 30 days. It asks whether the user wants to be informed if they have crossed paths with someone who has tested COVID-19 positive. The app uses Bluetooth and GPS tracking to provide information. The app also requires you to keep your Bluetooth and GPS Location sharing turned on at all times.
The person’s details provided are stored on the application server. When two mobile phones come within the range of the other’s Bluetooth, GPS location and digital details of the counterpart are stored locally. If one phone user tests COVID-19 positive, all his details are cross-referenced with the those that he came into close proximity with, pinpointed by digital ID and GPS information.
The application allows users to self-assess their symptoms, and the application compartmentalises them into different groups based on their COVID-19 risk.
The application has already been installed over 50 million times.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said various experts have raised multiple issues of privacy regarding Aarogya Setu app.
“We are looking at the privacy issues, as also the compulsory deduction of amount and hopefully within next 24 hours we will come with a more comprehensive and a calibrated response on the issue. But, these are areas of concern, we have noted,” he said at a press conference.