Aarogya Setu Performance Found to be Flawless; Can’t Respond to Those Looking for Social Media Glory: Secy, MeitY

Aarogya Setu, undoubtedly, will play a crucial role over the days to come to enable the movement of citizens across the country. After it was made mandatory for employees to download the app earlier this month, now the Aviation Ministry has advised travelers to download Aarogya Setu to ensure freedom of movement. Once the lockdown is lifted, metro services and other modes of transport may also follow suit.

In the days ahead, only citizens whose Aarogya Setu app shows green status will be allowed to travel say various reports. However, time and again, issues on the privacy of the user data collected by the app keep getting raised. Recently, researchers at MIT downgraded Aarogya Setu app rating from 2 to 1 out of 5 stars, on the basis of “data minimization”. The researchers felt that the app was collecting more data than needed. Apart from MIT, several others including leaders of the opposition parties in India have voiced similar concerns.

Nevertheless, Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), has requested citizens of the country to not go by “baseless innuendo on Aarogya Setu.” He reiterated through a post on a public forum that the performance level of the app is incomparable, and the best minds of the country had come together to build the platform.

“The build quality and performance levels of this app, as well as privacy-by-design, are far superior to almost anything built so far in India. This has been built by one of the finest teams of volunteers from the private sector, including CEOs and CTOs, and some of the best resources from NIC, in just three to four weeks before its launch. It's been guided by Lalitesh, who led Google Mapmaker and Maps and is credited for having made Google Maps happen. All of them, volunteers and officers, working relentlessly, 15 to 16 hours a day, through all the phases of the lockdown,” said Ajay Prakash Sawhney in the public post.

He also said that the app had been tested threadbare by one of the best teams in India, led by Prof Kamakoti in IIT Madras. The test, he said, had found the performance to be flawless (above 99.9% task completion, with less than 10% of the resources being used, with 5000 concurrent users). A competing app from another high calibre team collapsed at 1000 concurrent users.

Privacy Issues Regarding Aarogya Setu

The Secretary of MeitY also shared that two of the finest experts on privacy and personal data protection, Rahul Matthan and Arghya Sengupta, have personally guided the privacy policy of Aarogya Setu as well as its implementation. “Both the privacy policy and a data-sharing protocol brought out officially indicates precisely how the data is collected, shared, stored and deleted. Please compare this with ANY other app that you use day in day out and you'll be tempted to ask them for the same care and assurances and transparency on data privacy, consent-based use and fair practices,” stated Sawhney.

Benefits of the Aarogya Setu App are Multi-fold

The usage of the app must be encouraged according to Sahwney as we have an Indian app that gives out early alerts, and helps users protect their family, close contacts, neighbours as well as colleagues.

“In practice, the app generates fairly accurate Bluetooth contact data, helps those who use it for self-assessment to be guided and connected to doctors and health professionals and testing when assessed to require such help. The app also generates excellent advance alerts on potential hotspots, in time, in many cases, to give a chance to prevent them from becoming hotspots. As is the case with a quickly evolving app, in response to changing user requirements as the epidemic progresses, we cannot claim perfection, but are ready to keep improving its functionality and impact,” added Sahwney.

Concerns Regarding the App Unwarranted

On the few individuals who are raising concerns on social media about the usage of data by the app, the MeitY Secy commented: “Our team doesn't have the time to respond to pranksters and those who seek a few moments of social media glory by playing childish games and raising baseless issues. Do ask them if they worry about the doubts they fuel, that will result in many not making use of this excellent toolset to protect themselves and their families.”

He further went on to say that as the epidemic progresses, the strength and utility of the app will become all the more apparent. “Even though it'll divert us from more important tasks like building new functionalities and better analysis of what's already in place, we've decided to open the code within the next few days,” mentioned Sawhney.

“Right now, all of us are at war with a virus. When it's peacetime again, we can compare this app, feature by feature, with anything else in the world. Let's postpone this for now. This app can protect you, help connect you to testing and health services, demonstrably slow down the spread of the virus and save lives in many ways. Please use the app with confidence and encourage everyone around you to do so,” he asserted.