How Govts Are Tracing Corona Contacts

Aarogya Setu app, launched to trace Covid-19 patients digitally, is one of many being used across the world. Here’s how it fares

- Ankit Kumar

As nations increasingly adopt digital contact tracing as part of measures to prevent a resurgence of coronavirus, India’s Aarogya Setu app — though not as invasive as China’s — has sparked privacy concerns, with some experts warning that the tool is prone to surveillance abuse because of no strong data-protection laws in the world’s largest democracy.

“As shown by other democratic countries, the contact tracing app should only be voluntary and not made mandatory,” said Prasanth Sugathan, legal director at the Software Freedom Law Center, a digital-rights advocacy group.

The central government has made Aarogya Setu, with about 9.08 crore users as of now, mandatory for all public and private sector employees. It has been the most downloaded app on Play Store.

TECHNOLOGY, SECURITY

Aarogya Setu works on both Bluetooth and GPS location data. The location data from Aarogya Setu is stored on a centralised server in an encrypted format. It is used either through the user’s consent or once a person tests positive.