Netizens Raise More Questions Over Aarogya Setu Creator After Ministry’s Clarification

New Delhi: The clarification issued by the Ministry of Electronics and IT over the creator of Aarogya Setu App has sparked more debate. The ministry on Wednesday tried to end the speculation related to contact tracing app by saying that the app was developed at the time of global health emergency by the government in public-private partnership mode. However, netizens are posting questions over data ownership, data protection, amount spent on development and outcome of the app.

The debate sparked off after the National Informatics Centre (NIC), which designs government websites said in an RTI reply that it has no information about who has created the Aarogya Setu app and how it has been created.

The Chief Information Commission (CIC) has pulled up the NIC, which comes under the ministry of electronics, and issued a showcause notice to various chief public information officers asking them to provide a reply to an RTI application which questioned about the Covid-19 contact tracing up. The reply can’t be evasive, the CIC has said.

The ministry on Wednesday said that on April 2, 2020, Aarogya Setu App was launched by the government in public-private partnership mode to bring people of India together in its fight against COVID19. “The app was developed in a record time of around 21 days, to respond to the exigencies of the pandemic with Lockdown restrictions only for the objective of building a made in India contact tracing app with the best of Indian minds from industry, academia and government, working round the clock to build a robust, scalable and secure App,” the ministry said in its statement.

Since the launch of the app, regular press releases and updates have been issued on Aarogya Setu App including making the source code available in open domain on May 26. The names of all those associated with the development of the App and management of the App ecosystem at various stages was shared when the code was released in open and is available in the public domain.

LINK: https://github.com/nicdelhi/AarogyaSetu_Android/blob/master/Contributors.md.

Ministry said Aarogya Setu App has been developed by NIC in collaboration with volunteers from industry and academia. But netizens continue to question about the ownership of app, amount spends on development and protection of data.

https://twitter.com/rachitseth/status/1321448654951997441 

https://twitter.com/bukahol/status/1321446213300858882

Many on the internet have asked how safe is the most crucial data of Indians and if it has been shared with any private partner. Another user said, “We must know how much was spent for developing and maintaining this app. If the payment were made to private players then who was monitoring the entire process.”

Ministry in its statement also said that the Aarogya Setu app has been developed in the most transparent manner and all details and documents including privacy policy and Aarogya setu data access & knowledge sharing protocols issued on 11th May 2020 has been uploaded on the Aarogya Setu Portal – aarogyasetu.gov.in.

 The App has been downloaded by more than 16.23 Cr users and has greatly augmented the efforts of front line health workers in the fight against COVID19. It has helped identify Bluetooth contacts of COVID positive users and issued alerts for helping people to stay safe. These Bluetooth contacts have been advised for caution, quarantine or testing depending on the extent of exposure to COVID19 positive user.

Amongst those who have been advised testing, almost 25% have tested positive. This is much higher compared to the overall positivity rate of 7-8%. Thus, the efficiency of testing has gone up with Aarogya Setu.