Ever Since the government has developed the contact tracing Aarogya Setu mobile app to combat the deadly virus, the app has been facing criticism from various individuals and parties. Aarogya Setu is being triggered for lack of audit and transparency of nearly 90 million users who have downloaded it. Recently, the government has addressed the data breach concerns raised by a French ethical hacker Elliot Alderson and stated that there is no security or data breach in Aarogya Setu app and personal information of users is not at stake.
Ethical Hacker Tweeted that Privacy of 90 Million Indians is at Stake
French Hacker Elliot Alderson on Tuesday addressed the government and tweeted that a security concern has been traced on the app. He stated that private data of nearly 90 million Indians are at stake. He also tagged the famous congress leader Rahul Gandhi in his tweet who had already raised concerns regarding the data concerns related to Aarogya Setu app. Just after the tweet went live, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team and the National Informatics Centre and denied the Data security concerns raised by the hacker.
Aarogya Setu App Fetches Location Data: Ethical Hacker
French Ethical Hacker Elliot Alderson also tweeted that the Aarogya Setu App fetches location data of the users who download the App. However, the developers of the app stated that app stores location data on reliable and secure servers. Also, it is mentioned in the privacy policy of the App.
Aarogya Setu App is a Powerful Companion Which Protects People
Ravi Shankar Prasad, who is the Union Minister of India, denied the claims of ethical hacker and stated that Aarogya Setu App is a powerful companion which is protecting people from the deadly virus. The App has been designed with a robust data security structure which is helping the government to trace COVID-19 infected humans. Government has already mandated the App for government officials. Also, those who are living in COVID-19 containment zones will have to download the App. Government of Uttar Pradesh has already declared that default in downloading the App will be a crime under the Disaster Management Act. The Indian government is expecting nearly 30,000 crores new users in the next few weeks.
