Aarogya Setu app absolutely robust, safe & secure: Prasad

Aarogya Setu IVRS facility for those without smartphones

NEW DELHI: Rejecting charges by the opposition that the Aarogyasetu application breaches privacy, Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has asserted that the platform is "absolutely robust, safe and secure" in terms of privacy protection and data security.

“This is a technological invention of India — Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, our scientists, NIC, Niti Aayog and some private (entities) — whereby it is a perfectly accountable platform to help in the fight against COVID-19,” Prasad said.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has alleged that the Aarogya Setu app is a “sophisticated surveillance system, outsourced to a private operator, with no institutional oversight”.

He also said it raises serious data security and privacy concerns.

“Technology can help keep us safe; but fear must not be leveraged to track citizens without their consent,” Gandhi had said.

Countering the claim, Prasad said, “It is safe and secure. The data is in an encrypted form. Most important, it is for safety of Indians in public interest because it cautions you in the event there is a Covid-infected person in your vicinity.”

The minister said the mobile application also helps tracing contacts in the event a person is infected.

“It is a very robust invention of technology and many other countries are using similar applications to fight COVID-19. And the second most important point is that the data is limited. Routine data remains for 30 days and in the event you are infected, then (for) 45 to 60 days. Then automatically it will vanish,” he explained.

Prasad said there is always an option to scratch the app out of the phone or uninstall it.

“Then what is this hangama all about. The country has understood its utility and has

willingly accepted it,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Aarogy Setu Interactive Voice Response System' (IVRS) has been implemented to include citizens with feature phones and landline connections under the ambit of the Aarogya Setu' mobile application.

The IVRS is a toll-free service, available across the country, wherein citizens can give a missed call to the number 1921' and they will get a call back requesting for inputs regarding their health, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.