Aarogya Setu which means "bridge to health" in Sanskrit, is an Indian Covid-19 contact tracing app that has raised many concerns and doubts between experts and users. The app, which has now been 6 months active and has over 100 million downloads has been classified by the MIT technology review as transparent, but also as involuntary, limited, and minimized.
To register, the app requires the user’s name, location, travel history, gender, whether you’re a smoker, and its telephone number. With the phone’s Bluetooth and location data, it warns the user if they have been in contact with an infected person. Abhishek Singh the CEO of
MyGov at India said: "If you've met someone in the last two weeks who have tested positive, the app calculates your risk of infection based on how recent it was and proximity, and recommends measures”. The app claims that the user’s name and phone number will not be made public. However, all data is shared with the government. The information is uploaded to a government-owned and operated server. Abhishek Singh, explains that all registered users are allocated an anonymous ID through which all interactions with the government are made. But this did not make experts solve their doubts. Technology specialists believe that this gives the government the power and liberty to share the data with anyone they want.
Nevertheless, what is more, concerning is that the app tracks location. Moreover, there have also been doubts regarding the Bluetooth function of the app. Given that Bluetooth travels through walls, there can be incorrect data collected and create “false alarms”. Technicians say that apps that require constant access to Bluetooth and location are invasive to the user's privacy and security.
India’s Prime minister Narendra Modi has made the app mandatory for citizens living in containment zones and for all government and private sector employees. In Noida, a district of the capital has also made it obligatory for all residents to have the app, if not they can be jailed for six months. This action has been described as "utterly illegal" by a former Supreme Court judge since there is no law that mandates it.
Apart from Aarogya Setu, there are over 50 Covid-19 tracking apps, and some are also raising several privacy concerns around the world. But, the real question is, do we need an app to track infections? After all, an app has proved to not work anyway.
Bibliography:
Clarance, Andrew. “Aarogya Setu: Why India’s Covid-19 Contact Tracing App Is Controversial.” BBC News, BBC News, 14 May 2020, Accessed 28 Aug. 2020.
Patrick Howell O’Neill. “A Flood of Coronavirus Apps Are Tracking Us. Now It’s Time to Keep Track of Them.” MIT Technology Review, MIT Technology Review, 7 May 2020, Accessed 28 Aug. 2020.