The monitoring technology, which uses GPS and Bluetooth, has prompted a raft of questions about privacy, security and potential data breaches — and whether it gives the government snooping powers.
On Wednesday, Ravi Shankar Prasad, a senior minister, said the app was “robust” in terms of privacy protection and data security. The government also said no data or security breach had been identified with the app after a French security researcher exposed a flaw he said could allow virus carriers to be pinpointed.
The government requires the Aarogya Setu app be used by all workers, both private and public, and by members of the military. Installation of the app is also mandatory in regions declared as containment zones. Stranded Indians abroad who wish to be repatriated also need to install it on their mobile phones before entering the country.In Noida, a burgeoning satellite town half an hour’s drive from New Delhi, police have made it a punishable offense if people don’t use the app.
The government has not said if it plans to impose fines on people who don’t install the app, but hopes that if infections are tracked with the help of the app, more people will be able to resume at least part of their normal routines. India is the hardest-hit country in South Asia, with over 56,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 1,800 deaths.
But French security researcher, Baptiste Robert, said in a blog post Wednesday that he was able to modify the app to pinpoint the location of infected users. Writing under his online pseudonym Elliot Alderman, he said he was able to spoof his location in order to look anywhere in India for infected users.
India is not new to privacy violations and data breaches. In 2018, a controversial billion-member biometric database called “Aadhaar” was breached, putting the identity details of more than 1 billion citizens at risk.Many Indian states published quarantine lists on their official websites which included names of people who were suspected of being virus carriers. The app, experts say, presents similar concerns but on a much larger scale.
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