On Saturday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that the Arogya Setu Application is a “sophisticated surveillance system” outsourced to a private operator that is raising serious data security and privacy concerns.
The Arogya Setu Application
Recommended strongly by the Central Government, Arogya Setu Application helps keep one track of the COVID-19 outbreak apart from allowing oneself to identify whether he/she is at the risk of contracting the virus.
A couple of weeks ago, PM Narendra Modi himself had requested the citizens of the country to download the application. Since then, the application has been one of the most downloaded across the country.
The Central Government has made it mandatory for all its employees to download the application. Similarly, the Government is pushing the private companies to pass a similar order amongst their employees.
Rahul Gandhi says the application isn’t safe
Rahul Gandhi said that the Arogya Setu App poses a lot of data security concerns and also felt that fear must be not be leveraged to track a citizen without his/her consent. He tweeted:
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
In reply to this tweet, Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said: “Daily a new lie. Aarogya Setu is a powerful companion which protects people. It has a robust data security architecture. Those who indulged in surveillance all their lives, won’t know how tech can be leveraged for good!”
Earlier, Congress Spokesperson Randeep Surjewala had also talked about the flaws of the application. He had said: “We are looking at the privacy issues, as also the compulsory deduction of amount and hopefully within next 24 hours we will come with a more comprehensive and a calibrated response on the issue. But, these are areas of concern, we have noted.”
Source: India Today
