India's largest Covid-19 tracking app controversial

The Aarogya Setu application raises many questions about the collection of personal information concerning its users. REUTERS / Adnan Abidi

Text by: Côme Bastin Follow

In India, the application launched by the government against the coronavirus has been massively downloaded. But despite concessions from the government, this giant tracking tool arouses the distrust of NGOs.

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From our correspondent in Bangalore, 

Over 100 million people have downloaded it, almost one in ten Indians. These are the impressive statistics from Aargoya Setu, the anti-Covid-19 tracking application launched by the government on April 2. The objective is to identify people who may have been in contact with a positive patient without knowing it and the infectious foci.

If the government welcomes these results, NGOs have been protesting for two months against the invasion of privacy of this application. The reason: the opaque data collection via GPS and bluetooth technologies of this health control program, the largest in the world.

Only 35% of Indians have a smartphone

The Indian government has made concessions. Previously compulsory for public and private sector employees, Aarogya Setu is now only recommended. Its source code has also been made public since May 27. However, questions remain for Prashant Sugathan, director of the NGO Software Freedom Law Center.

“  India still does not have privacy laws on the internet. All this data collection is done in the absence of a legal framework, he deplores. We have access to the source code of the application. But what is done with the data stored on the central server ? That is the real question.  "

Beyond the controversies over data management, the very usefulness of the application is also called into question, when only 35% of Indians have a smartphone.

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  • India
  • Coronavirus
  • Health and Medicine

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