Govt to make Android source code for Aarogya Setu public
NEW DELHI: The government announced on Tuesday it will release the programme code for the Aarogya Setu’s Android version and offer independent researchers money for digging out problems in the software, bowing to pressure from experts who have called for India’s official digital contact-tracing tool to be made more transparent.
Describing the step as historic, officials from the government think-tank Niti Aayog and the electronics ministry said that the code for the Android version will become available by Tuesday midnight before other versions – used in iPhones and more basic Jio phones -- are released at a later date.
“We were always open to open sourcing the Aarogya Setu, but had to prioritise the Covid contact-sourcing. This is the largest such product to be made open source. It cuts across 150 million users, and more than 3,000 hotspots were detected within three to 17 days ahead of time. Through the app, 8 lakh people self-assessed themselves, and 140,000 people were warned of potential risk infection through bluetooth,” said Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.
The government said that as of May 26, the app has over 114 million users and is available in 12 languages on Android, iOS and KaiOS platforms. Ajay Sawhney, secretary of the IT ministry, said that as 98% of the users of the app are on Android systems, it was releasing the code of the Android version first. The National Informatics Centre will support the open source development of the code, and all code suggestions will be processed after inputs are reviewed, the ministry said. The Aarogya Setu was launched on April 2 and the government made it mandatory for several activities, such as taking some types of flights and for going to work (which was eventually relaxed), leading to mass downloads.
The tool, the primary objective of which has been described as tracing contacts of a Covid patient so that they can be reached and isolated before spreading the disease further, has been the subject of privacy and security concerns. Privacy activists say the data can be misused for illegal surveillance and profiling of individuals.
Making the code public has been one of the demands of the activists, who see it as a crucial step in determining how sensitive personal information is sent and processed.
“The app has helped identify about 500,000 bluetooth contacts. And, those who were identified as the contacts of Covid-19 positive cases or classified as needing assistance based on their self-assessment, are contacted by the National Health Authority,” a release by the IT ministry said.
Abhishek Singh, CEO MyGov, said “The collaborative approach of the development of the app continues,” said Singh.
French ethical hacker who goes by the nom de guerre of Elliot Anderson tweeted, “This is a very positive news and I’m very happy that the Indian government took this direction. Now, we would like to see what is happening on the server side.”