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| Credit: News 18 |
The Aarogya Setu app has been downloaded extra than
10,000,000 with the aid of Android customers from the Google Play Store.
It
remains on the very pinnacle of the popularity listings at the Play Store in
addition to Apple’s personal App Store for the iPhone circle of relatives of
smartphones. Banks are sending SMSes
urging you to download and deploy the Aarogya Setu app on your phones. Your mobile service company is doing the same. The Department
of Telecom is sending messages. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of
the Government of India is sending messages too. You just can not miss the
existence of the Aarogya Setu app.
Your child's college may also have despatched a
communique urging the entire circle of relatives to sign-ups for the Aarogya Setu
app. That is before you even get to Twitter. But why is it such a big deal and
why is it being pushed so aggressively?
The biggest push possibly came over the weekend, while Prime
Minister Narendra Modi cited the Aarogya Setu app and stated there is a
opportunity that the app could eventually be used as an e-skip to facilitate
tour from one area to another. One might
believe this can be a connection with enabling critical travel as the lockdown
keeps in India, particularly for urgent or essential movement of people.
HOW THE AAROGYA SETU APP STARTED OUT
Let us check the very cause why Aarogya Setu app got here
into existence. It become designed as a Coronavirus or COVID-19 contact
tracing app that makes use of the Bluetooth and place tracking technology in
telephones to notice when they're near every other user who also has the
Aarogya Setu app mounted on their phones—and this is continuously happening. This fact is then matched and kept, and in case a person you have got are
available near is confirmed as infected by way of the Coronavirus,
the health government will warn you to get your self checked.
“In my understanding, Aarogya Setu app is trying to accomplish
roles - one, is to put into effect social distancing the usage of
Bluetooth-enabled app-established gadgets coming in proximity of every other;
and two, a post-facto touch tracing (over say, the final one week or
event-based totally like his departure or arrival from an infected region) if
someone is recognized COVID-19 positive.
Also, maybe used as a COVID-19 records App,” says
Prof Rajan K.S, Head of Lab for Spatial Informatics at IIIT Hyderabad, or
International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad.
Contact tracing is important in curtailing the Coronavirus
unfold across the us of a and indeed around the world. An individual who maybe
inflamed with the COVID-19 virus might not show any signs or signs for as many
as 14 days more however can unfold the infection in the meantime via cough, for
instance.
As and when a showed COVID case is taken in for treatment,
health government scramble to tune as many people this inflamed individual may
have met inside the past few days.
Apart from potential contact tracing, the Aarogya Setu app
does what one would assume in instances like these—tell users about the fine
hygiene, protection and cleanliness practices to protect in opposition to the
Coronavirus.
“The information generated from the app could play a key role
within the submit lockdown approach of the government. Understanding the
hotspots, actions of people can provide swift, records driven policy
interventions that might shop us precious time, and help us recover better and
faster as a u. S .,” says Kazim Rizvi, Founder, The Dialogue, an unbiased
policy suppose tank.
Aarogya Setu is an important step in our fight against COVID-19. By leveraging technology, it provides important information. As more and more people use it, it’s effectiveness will increase. I urge you all to download it.https://t.co/VaiPIjhxM2https://t.co/8Irj6ApmOQ pic.twitter.com/L91vaLlCCq— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 8, 2020
THE GOVERNMENT IS CONFIDENT, THOUGH
That is perhaps to be expected. And part of that actually
comes from the truth that Aarogya Setu is popular among smartphone users in
India. The Play Store and App Store information without a doubt shows as much and
parallels are being drawn with the partnership that tech giants Apple and
Google introduced some days ago, which confirmed that the two businesses are
working on integrating tech for touch tracing apps to work higher on their
phones.
“India leads the manner in touch tracing for COVID-19:
privacy-first through design, secure, robust and scalable to billion customers.
Glad to look Apple and Google becoming a member of fingers to broaden contact
tracing on the lines of #AarogyaSetu,” stated Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Ayog on
Twitter.
The World Bank has also praised the Aarogya Setu app.
“Digital technologies can also be used to display the unfold of COVID-19. Such
initiatives, in large part voluntary, had been a hit in helping fight the pandemic
in East Asia. Incentives additionally may be provided to the ones who record
symptoms.
India recently launched an app, Aarogya Setu, that uses
location information from persons’ smartphones to inform users if they have
been near a person who tested advantageous for COVID-19,” says the World Bank’s
brand new South Economic Focus report.
India leads the way in contact tracing for COVID-19: privacy-first by design, secure, robust and scalable to billion users. Glad to see Apple and Google joining hands to develop contact tracing on the lines of #AarogyaSetu @tim_cook @sundarpichai pic.twitter.com/JDoSl0A5Qa— Amitabh Kant (@amitabhk87) April 11, 2020
THERE ARE CONCERNS ABOUT THE PRIVACY POLICY
Head over to the Google Play Store to your Android smartphone
or the App Store in your Apple iPhone, and the application download page of the
Aarogya Setu app welcomes you with an instead vague description of what it is
able to and can not do. The description reads—Aarogya Setu is a mobile
application advanced via the Government of India to connect crucial fitness
offerings with the people of India in our combined fight in opposition to
COVID-19.
The App is aimed at augmenting the tasks of the Government of
India, especially the Department of Health, in proactively reaching out to and
informing the users of the app concerning risks, nice practices and applicable
advisories concerning the containment of COVID-19.
Make of it what you will, however, it doesn’t communicate
approximately the capacity use of monitoring technologies, what information is
being collected, in which the statistics are being stored, how steady is the
facts and what the government intends to do with the information. All that is
earlier than the user downloads the Aarogya Setu app. You need to download the
app to delve a chunk deeper into the Privacy Policy, which reveals a piece
more.
“This App uses Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms, GPS and
Bluetooth era to pick out a person’s interplay with different humans. The
Privacy Policy of the app itself states that it can be utilized by the
Government for “the cause of generating reports, heat maps, and different
statistical visualizations for the reason of the management of COVID-19 within the
country”,” says Virag Gupta, Cyber Law professional and Supreme Court Advocate.
Gupta also points out that worryingly, India nevertheless
doesn’t have a Personal Privacy Law which might set down guidelines for how
records is accrued and stored as well as safeguard against the misuse of the
accrued records.
“This App is said to have been advanced in 3 weeks, however
the government didn't legislate a Privacy Law despite the Puttaswamy judgment
given by way of nine judges of the Supreme Court, a few years back. As in step
with current IT Act and rules, health data are categorized as touchy personal
records and need to be secured with the best degree of protection,” he says.
There is no clarity on this specific clause inside the
Privacy Policy—“personal information will also be shared with such other
essential and relevant men and women as may be required to carry out
vital clinical and administrative interventions.” We do now not recognize who
these 1/3 parties may be, whether most effective authorities corporations will
have to get entry to this statistics or whether it can be shared with personal
entities too.
“The Privacy Policy says that this one-time fact is saved at
the server/cloud, anonymized and a unique ID generated (DiD), which is then used
for all of the transactions. Two other points to be aware are that the records
is stored at the tool until the consumer is identified as positive; and that
statistics older than 30 days are purged both at the device and at the cloud,
if any,” says Prof Rajan K.S.
AND GENUINE CONCERNS ABOUT SOCIAL STIGMA
Prof Rajan K.S does point out the opportunity of
stigmatization, signs, and symptoms of which we are already seeing in the times
of harassment of doctors and fitness workers. “Personal privacy point of view,
what is disturbing is the open-ended wording on sharing the private data (once
diagnosed as positive) with other essential and applicable persons. And how
these men and women or groups will use them. Any stigmatization of people
publicly can also infringe on individual rights and wishes to be guarded,” he
says.
IS IT MORE THAN JUST A CONTACT TRACING APP AND IS IT HERE TO STAY?
There is a specific opinion that we will now not see the
again of the Aarogya Setu app once the arena is a higher region and the
Coronavirus is gone. The PM’s pointers at this getting used to facilitate
journey during the lockdown could also be a demonstration at a miles wider
scope for the app, within the post-COVID world.
“This creeping enlargement of uses is unsurprising,
specifically when the official cause defined on the App Store has been
notoriously vague. Also, the authorities’s third April Circular already
discovered that the authorities were moving towards a centralized “Citizen App”
that might be used for several COVID-19 related purposes,” says Amba Kak,
Director (Global Strategy & Programs) on the AI Now Institute at the New
York University.
The round that Kak is relating to talks about creating an
unmarried nation-wide era platform for on-boarding all citizens—the well-timed
peg being it is going to be a powerful device in preventing a pandemic. The
7-member committee includes Chairman of TRAI R.S. Sharma, Mahindra &
Mahindra chairman Anand Mahindra and N. Chandrasekaran, the chairman of Tata
Sons.Anivar Aravind, the Founder Executive Director of Indic The project believes that the brand new push as a travel facilitator comes because
the preceding tries to popularize this app didn’t certainly do the job.
“Since pushing their technique to states is failed, now we
are seeing integrating same idea of e-passes for facts capture for restrained
mobility scenario due to #covid19 via Arogya Setu, the use of PMO, Niti Ayog
access,” he says in a tweet. He additionally says that “Travel enterprise
solutionism for smartphone users is now getting integrated with e-passes for
travel all through health emergencies violating each citizens’ rights and
federal structure,” and says that we should anticipate more identification
integrations and additionally more protocol integrations for restrained
mobility.
Aarogya Setu And WeChat IN CHINA: ARE THERE ANY SIMILARITIES?
Are there any parallels with how China uses apps including
WeChat to enable access to multiple services, including travel permissions?
The Chinese government has used the WeChat app as well for color-coded health
tags to all citizens, which allowed authorities to enable movement and access
to services as and when required. “China is using color-coding patterns to
identify individuals and their proximity to a COVID affected area.
WeChat also has features where users have to input their
temperature at certain times during the day. This App presently requires name,
gender, age, profession and travel history. As it uses Bluetooth and location
data, it can surely become a facilitator for travel in the post COVID world,”
says Gupta.
“We’ve seen similar mobility applications in China. Various
“health code” apps have been developed by local authorities where an algorithm
gives users a color code (green or red) based on a questionnaire and location
tracking. This decides whether you can enter your workplace, or leave city and
state borders” says Kak.
The specific concerns of Aarogya Setu, particularly as a
travel facilitator, is causing more privacy queries. “People's lives can be at
the mercy of non-transparent systems that don't allow you to understand, let
alone question, their decisions. In China, there have been reports of
complaints that people’s health code apps are flipping between green and red
with no explanation. A false positive in this app can impact your ability to
work, earn a living, or care for family,” warns Kak.
Rizvi believes that the Aarogya Setu app will not be used
like how WeChat is used in China, simply because India is a democratic country
governed by the rule of law. “The right to Privacy has been enshrined as a
fundamental right after the Puttaswamy judgment. The judgment lays down the
principles of proportionality and necessity as conditions precedent for
the processing of data. We may argue that the pandemic is one of those situations
where community interests are a priority. That being said, this does not waive
the fundamental right to privacy,” he says.
THE MATTER OF CONSENT AND THE CHALLENGES IN TIMES OF A PANDEMIC
Contact tracing apps are getting used in many nations
already, together with China, Singapore, and Vietnam, to name a few. Those who
don’t have it are quickly operating on getting one ready. “We are seeing
globally, and now not simply with India, that touch tracing technology area
piece in progress on the subject of overcoming the challenges associated with
obtaining authentic consent from the person, says Rizvi.
“In an extraordinary time like this, drastic steps are
important to defend the community at massive and the authorities has a
legitimate right to conduct focused surveillance to fight the pandemic, with
right assessments and balances,” he adds.
The numbers, both way, are mind-boggling. According to market
studies organization techARC, India has already crossed the 502.2 million
smartphone user mark as of December 2019, quite a number that has seen a
tremendous boost in the beyond few years due to more low-cost smartphones
arriving in stores, as properly as quicker 4G records costs decreasing significantly.
There are reviews that the Aarogya Setu app may also be rolled out for function
phones, which facilitates widen the ability of consumer demographic significantly.
What is AarogyaSetu App? And Who Developed AarogyaSetu App and Why?
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| Credit: Playstore |
AarogyaSetu
is a SmartPhone App developed by the Government of India to connect vital
health services with the human beings of India in our combined fight towards
COVID-19. The App is aimed toward augmenting the initiatives of the Government
of India, especially the Department of Health, in proactively attaining out to
and informing the customers of the app concerning risks, exceptional practices
and relevant advisories concerning the containment of COVID-19.
How does it work AarogyaSetu App?
Ayogya Setu App alerts the user when he comes in contact with a corona
infected. This app sends this alert by tracking the user's Bluetooth connection
and mobile number.
How to use AarogyaSetu App?
You
can download the Arogya Setu App by visiting the Google Place Store. However,
remember that you download the official and correct app. It has been published
by NIC.
1. To
use it, you must first register your phone number.
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| Credit: PlayStore |
2. As
soon as you enter the phone number, an OTP will come, which you register as
soon as you enter.
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| Credit: PlayStore |
3. After this, you have to give it some
permissions which includes your GPS location access.
4. As soon as you register, it asks for your
personal information which includes your name, gender, age, occupation and
30-day travel history.
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| Credit: PlayStore |
5. After
that app asks you to choose your desired language.
6. It
is easy to use. In this, some questions are asked from you, which shows that
you have not come in contact with the infected person. Also, if you come in
contact with someone, it alerts you immediately. Whenever you go into a
high-risk category, it will alert you immediately.
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| Credit: PlayStore |
7. A list of COVID-19 help center numbers is
given in the app. Also, you can do self-assessment in it.
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