Govt made the Aarogya Setu App compulsory for people living in the COVID-19 Containment Zones inside the 130 districts identified as the Red Zones.
New Delhi| On Saturday, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi raised data and privacy concerns for the citizens using the Aarogya Setu Application. He added it is similar to spying on people.
âThe Arogya Setu app is a sophisticated surveillance system, outsourced to a pvt operator, with no institutional oversight – raising serious data security & privacy concerns,â tweeted Gandhi this evening.
The Arogya Setu app, is a sophisticated surveillance system, outsourced to a pvt operator, with no institutional oversight – raising serious data security & privacy concerns. Technology can help keep us safe; but fear must not be leveraged to track citizens without their consent.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 2, 2020
IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, soon after Gandhiâs tweet, dismissed the snooping charge, emphasised how the app helps protect people in their battle against the COVID-19.
Aarogya Setu app was intended for voluntary use when it was launched on April 2 as a âsophisticated surveillance systemâ. Now it has been made compulsory for all government and private employees. If a private firm employee is found without the app on their phone, the head of the company will be held accountable, the central government has said.
The app alerts users if they have come in close proximity to any novel coronavirus positive patient. It tracks through a Bluetooth and location-generated social graph and determines the userâs risk of infection based on recency and proximity of COVID-19 patient.
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Randeep Surjewala, Congress chief spokesperson said that various experts have raised multiple issues of privacy about Aarogya Setu app.
The total cases in India surged to 39,980 including 10,633 cured/discharged/migrated and 1,301 deaths amid lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19.
In the past 24 hours, 83 casualties were recorded, highest so far. A staggering 2,644 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the last 24 hours.
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