Government Issues New Safeguards for Aarogya Setu Data Following Privacy Concerns

May. 12, 2020

In an effort to assure citizens that theAarogya Setu appdoesn’t pose any risk to their online privacy, the Indian government on Monday issued a new set of guidelines for processing of data collected through thecontroversial contact-tracing softwareand even proposed jail terms for violators. The new guidelines not onlyprohibit the storage of Aarogya Setu data for more than six months, there’s also a provision for people to seek deletion of their data from the record within 30 days of making such a request.

The fresh guidelines, which lay down rules on the handling of data by various health and security agencies tasked with controlling the pandemic, also limits what exact information can be collected through the new app. According to thePTI, the new guidelines allow the collection of only demographic, contact, self-assessment and location data of persons infected by the coronavirus or those who come in contact with the infected person.

Talking to the PTI, Ajay Prakash Sawhney, the Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and IT, said that“privacy is an important aspect of Aarogya Setu”. According to him,“(A) lot of work has been done over data privacy. A good privacy policy has been made to ensure that personal data of people are not misused … We provide these information to check an area from becoming a hotspot. Privacy is an important aspect of Aarogya Setu”.

The latest developments come just days after famed security researcher, Baptiste Robert, claimed that theAarogya Setu app has severe security loopholesthat could have potentially exposed the exact location of 90 million users. According to Robert, not only does the app allows for continuous location tracking in the background, it also allows anyone to see the concentration of COVID-positive or COVID-suspected people within up to a 10km radius. The government, however, has denied all allegations, claiming that the issues pointed out by the researcher are included in the app ‘by design’.

Passionate techie. Professional tech writer. Proud geek.