Aarogy Setu: No threat to privacy of Indians

The government asserted

Wednesday, 6th May 2020

Government asserted that there is no privacy threat for people using Aarogya Setu app, in response to a French ethical hacker, who claimed that the  “privacy of 90 million Indians is at stake”. The government replied that there was “no data or security breach” and “no personal information of any user has been proven to be at risk by this ethical hacker”.

The hacker’s reply was: “Basically, you said "nothing to see here". We will see. I will come back to you tomorrow”. And after two hours he wrote, “Do you know what triangulation is?” to the government.

Elliot Alderson, the hacker, went on talking about “security issue” in the app and wrote, “PS: Rahul Gandhi was right”, while tagging the Congress MP in Twitter. He wrote, “Hi Aarogya Setu, a security issue has been found in your app. The privacy of 90 million Indians is at stake. Can you contact me in private? Regards. PS: Rahul Gandhi was right”.

After just an hour, he claimed that the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team and the National Informatics Centre contacted him. He then wrote, “Putting the medical data of 90 million Indians (at risk) is not an option. I have a very limited patience, so after a reasonable deadline, I will disclose it, fixed or not”, as a warning.

In response to this, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister wrote, “Daily a new lie. Aarogya Setu is a powerful companion which protects people. It has robust data security architecture. Those who indulged in surveillance all their lives won't know how tech can be leveraged for good!”

Prime Minister Modi and Union Ministers are promoting the app in order to take precautions against Covid-19, while the UP government has banned the same.

Stranded Indians who will be brought back home will have to use the app. Similarly, people working in offices will have to download the app for the safer side. However people working from home need not download the app.

Presently, tracking of covid-19 patients is necessary as the lockdown has been lifted. Better safe than sorry.

Source: NDTV