Setu net spreads wider Red zone people and staff of public, private sector must download app

The Aarogya Setu mobile application is no longer voluntary. In a directive issued by the ministry of home affairs (MHA), the app has been made mandatory for all residents of containment zones. The responsibility of enforcing this directive falls on the local authorities.

At the same time, the directive makes the app compulsory at workplaces. All employees — public and private — would have to download the app on their phone and the head of an organisation would be responsible for ensuring ‘100 per cent coverage’.

Since its unveiling, the Aarogya Setu app, meant for contact tracing, has been met with considerable criticism from privacy activists. In theory, the app pinpoints the location of a user using location and Bluetooth data. If they come in contact with a person who later tests positive for Covid19, they are sent an alert on the app.

Activists have noted that the app collects excessive data from users and asked for its code in open source, which would allow developers and civil society to audit it for security risks.

Multiple organisations have stated that the app has been released with very little information on how it would help the government in contact tracing since many Indians do not own smartphones and such an app would need widespread adoption.

They have asked if Aarogya Setu data would be shared with state governments. Also, though the app’s documentation claims the app shares user data with the government in ‘anonymised, aggregated datasets,’ activists have said this still doesn’t guarantee users won’t be identifiable and be exposed to security risks.

The Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), in a statement on Saturday, sent a representation of 45 organisations and 100 individuals against the mandatory use of Aarogya Setu. The letter noted that violation of the directive could lead to criminal penalties for individuals. ‘[...] thereby Aarogya Setu now not only impacts the data privacy of workers, or can lead to risks of exclusion and misidentification, a person not having it on their phone can also be charged with a criminal offence. This marks a dramatic and clear shift in government policy on Aarogya Setu from, “encouragement’ towards coercion,” it read.

It may be noted that the app has already been made mandatory for some organisations. A few days ago, Prasar Bharati and the central armed police forces were told to download the app. Food-delivery aggregator Zomato, too, had made the app compulsory for its delivery executives. Urban company has issued a similar directive to the service providers listed on its app.

Hyderabad MP and MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has criticised the Centre on the matter. In a tweet, he questioned why “Delhi’s Sultans have issued a farmaan that people have no choice in the matter. They MUST share their private data with govt (& whoever the govt wants?) (sic)".

In reply, Union minister Prakash Javadekar on Saturday said the app has only one objective — to give alerts to somebody when he/she is near an infected person. He said there were no concern over privacy-related issues. He said the app would be used over the next couple of years. “The lockdown would be over soon. This app would be the permanent help till we win the war against the pandemic,” he said.