27 Aug 2020, 04:27 PM IST
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Mired in controversies
Considered key tools in stemming the pandemic, the rollout of Punjab’s Corona Virus Alert (COVA) app and the dozens of tracing apps being used by different states has been mired in concerns over privacy issues. According to a new report released this month by Tandem Research, an independent research collective, there are at least 85 tech tools being used to support the public health response in India.
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Health workers and lawyers say they are worried about the lack of privacy policies in the apps, as well as the use of open-source software and unclear terms on issues like data retention and sharing. The apps use Bluetooth and GPS on smartphones to evaluate a user’s risk of infection based on their location and their medical and travel history.
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Many of India’s state apps were launched even as the central government brought out its own coronavirus contact-tracing app Aarogya Setu, or “Health Bridge”, in early April, which has been downloaded by more than 152 million people, according to the National Informatics Centre. “While Aarogya Setu has faced significant scrutiny, not much is known about how the state apps work,” said Devdutta Mukhopadhyay, a lawyer with New Delhi-based digital rights group Internet Freedom Foundation.
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In late February, Ravi Bhagat and his team were asked to develop an app that would work as an administrative and awareness tool to fight the pandemic. “We had a deadline of less than a week to come up with something,” said Bhagat, CEO of the Punjab government’s e-governance cell. “We studied the South Korea and China models, looked at our requirements, and had it up and running,” he added, noting that the app has been downloaded by more than 5 million people.
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In this race to get the technology up and running, personal data concerns were overlooked, say privacy rights advocates. A report released in April by the non-profit Software Freedom Law Center has warned about the “excessive collection and processing, and unauthorised sharing of personal data, unbridled surveillance and tracing of people” by state apps.
Looking at the apps’ policy documents, the researchers at the New Delhi-based organisation found that many did not have terms of service accessible to users, limiting the governments’ liability in case of “misuse of the data collected”.
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