New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday raised questions over the Aarogya Setu App, claiming that it is a “sophisticated surveillance system”.
“The Aarogya Setu app, is a sophisticated surveillance system, outsourced to a pvt operator, with no institutional oversight – raising serious data security & privacy concerns. Technology can help keep us safe; but fear must not be leveraged to track citizens without their consent,” he said on Twitter.
The Arogya Setu app, is a sophisticated surveillance system, outsourced to a pvt operator, with no institutional oversight – raising serious data security & privacy concerns. Technology can help keep us safe; but fear must not be leveraged to track citizens without their consent.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 2, 2020
‘Daily a new lie’: Minister dismisses Rahul’s concern
Soon after his tweet, the Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad took to Twitter and refuted his charges.
Dismissing Rahul’s ‘false concerns’ over Aarogya App, senior BJP leader said, “Mr Gandhi, really high time that you stop outsourcing your tweets to your cronies who do not understand India.”
Daily a new lie.
Aarogya Setu is a powerful companion which protects people. It has a robust data security architecture.
Those who indulged in surveillance all their lives, won’t know how tech can be leveraged for good! https://t.co/t8ThXmddcS— Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) May 2, 2020
Attacking Gandhi, Prasad said, “Daily a new lie. Aarogya Setu is a powerful companion which protects people. It has a robust data security architecture. Those who indulged in surveillance all their lives, won”t know how tech can be leveraged for good!”
‘False panic by Congress’
Varun Jhaveri, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to CEO, Ayushman Bharat also took to Twitter to rebut Rahul’s allegations over Aarogya App.
Elaborating the privacy policy, he termed it a false panic.
False panic!
Actual Privacy Policy:
1. Data is stored on a server operated & managed by Government.
2. All info uploaded is deleted (even from the server) after 45 days of uploading.
3. All data is encrypted before being uploaded
4. User has to give consent for providing data https://t.co/BqtF6jQuHf— Varun Jhaveri (@Varun_Jhaveri) May 2, 2020
The Ayushman Bharat official enumerated the Actual Privacy policy as follows:
1. Data is stored on a server operated & managed by Government.
2. All info uploaded is deleted (even from the server) after 45 days of uploading.
3. All data is encrypted before being uploaded
4. User has to give consent for providing data
It may be noted that the central government has made it compulsory for all its employees to download the app and urged private entitles to also ask their employees to use it.
