Question : Aarogya Setu App

Will the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology be pleased to state:

(a) the number of users who have registered and uploaded their personal information on the Aarogya Setu app;
(b) the manner in which the data of users of the said app is protected along with the provisions in the law in this regard;
(c) the details of all Government departments, agencies and Ministries and non-Government
entities that have access to the data collected through this app;
(d) Whether the Government is aware that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has reportedly given the app a rating of one out of five due to concerns over transparency, lack of minimisation of data and so on; and
(e) If so, the details thereof and the response and the reaction of the Government thereto?

(a) There are 15.71 Cr. registered Users. At the time of registration, all Users are required to provide certain personal information like name, phone number, age, sex, profession etc.

(b) The App is equipped with standard security features to protect the confidentiality and security of the User''s data. The data is encrypted in transit as well as at rest. Personal information provided at the time of registration is encrypted before being uploaded to the backend server, where it is stored in encrypted form. The data collected by the App is governed by the Aarogyasetu Data Access and Knowledge Sharing Protocol 2020, the Aarogyasetu Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

(c) The Response Data from Aarogyasetu is shared with Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), State/Union Territory Governments and other Government Ministries/Departments, where such sharing is strictly necessary to directly formulate or implement an appropriate health response.

(d) The rating was undertaken by an independent Media Company known as MIT Technology Review and not undertaken by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It may also be noted that the review given by the media company was based on their understating and interpretation of the app and the way it functions. No inputs were taken from NIC prior to publishing the report

(e) The MIT Technology Review Media Company has given Aarogyasetu 2 Stars out of 5. The 2 Stars were given for transparency and data destruction. Aarogyasetu has maintained utmost transparency in all aspects. Aarogyasetu is the biggest COVID-19 contact tracing App in the world with more than 15.71 crore registered Users. The Aarogyasetu App is not allowed access from outside India, hence it is not clear how the Media Company evaluated the App from outside India. In addition the Aarogyasetu App was indigenously designed to cater to the specific demographics of India and the features and functionalities in the App are built accordingly. Any organisation publishing a report needs to understand the context of how and why this App was built with specific features suited for India. Giving a rating based on the organisations own interpretations is not justified.
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