AAROGYA SETU: HELPING APPLICATION OR A TOOL OF SURVEILLANCE

INTRODUCTION 

The Government of India launched a mobile application named Aarogya Setu to fight against the novel Corona virus disease (COVID-19) by connecting essential health services with the people of India. The Brand Ambassador for Aarogya Setu App is Ajay Devgan. This Application mainly aimed at connecting COVID-19 related health services and based on contact tracking which means that it helps identify people who are likely to be carriers of the disease. While there are some methods of contact tracking requires physical interviews with people but mobile technology has made the work easier and safer that makes usage of GPS and Bluetooth features in smart phones and to track the corona virus infection. This app is provided for both Android as well as IOS.  It is designed to accrete the initiatives of the Government of India by informing the people about risk of COVID-19, spreading awareness about the virus and most important to stay healthy by adopting a best practice and medical advisories about COVID-19.It becomes world’s fastest app to reach 50 million downloads in 13 days and available in 12 languages.

This application has developed by National Development Centre that comes under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity). This Technology notified the Aarogya Setu Data Access and Knowledge Sharing Protocol, 2020 on May 11, 2020.  Through this protocol, Government succeeds to give the answer of common queries surrounding the collection and use of data. But the legal basis of that app for end use of data collected is remaining unattended. The new protocols for the Aarogya Setu app say that data can be retained for 180 days.

Divisions: Aarogya Setu has four divisions like

1.      Self Assess which helps the users to identify the symptoms and risk of this disease,

2.       E-pass integration,

3.     Updates of COVID-19 on local as well as national corona virus cases the surveillance will be in addition to routine testing as per current guidelines, the ministry said. This move will not only help the officials, Government and its agencies monitor but also check for community transmission in any part of country.

4.   User Status which tell the risk of getting this virus for the user. The facilities provided on surveillance is an expansion of testing of flu and respiratory cases in hospitals being carried out by the government.

Unlike the other trace apps which asks about user’s number but Aarogya Setu app asks about the name of the users, age, health details, profession and GPS location so it provides the idea about person’s religion, caste and social status and use to identify the social graph, as this all information is collected for registration but none of these is required for contact tracing. The Internet Freedom Foundation called it as “Privacy minefield”, by saying “it does not adhere to principles of minimization, limitation and accountability.”In order passed on 29^th April 2020 the central government said to all employees of Central Government and public sector units and independent agencies download the app and must cross check their infection status on the app before starting the day. It become world’s largest contact tracing app reaching over 11 crore 40 lakh people.

Privacy rights : The invasion of privacy in this app by collecting the data is violate the fundamental rights of citizens as prescribed in Article 21 of part 3 of the Constitution. There are leading cases i.e.

v R. Rajagopal v. State of T.N. (1994) 6SCC 632

This case is popularly known as “Auto Shankar case” in which three questions had been raised. Whether a citizen could prevent another person for writing his autobiography? Secondly, does an authorized piece of writing infringe or violate the citizen’s right to privacy? Does the press have the right to publish an unauthorized account of a citizen’s life? Thirdly, whether the Government could maintain an action for defamation or put restraint or press not to publish such material against their officials or whether the officials themselves had the right to so.

Supreme Court has expressly held as “right to privacy” or right to be let alone is guaranteed by Art. 21 of the Constitution and also held that the public officials can take action only after the publication if it is found to be false. Every citizen has a right to privacy and to safe his privacy if his own, his family, marriage, motherhood, child- bearing and education among other matters. No one can publish anything concerning the above matters without his consent.

EXCEPTION: 1. if a matter becomes a matter of public record the right to privacy no longer exists and it become legitimate subject for comment by press and media among others.

2. The right to privacy or the remedy of action for damage is simple not available to public officials as long as the criticism concerns the discharge of their public duties.

v Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India AIR 2015 SC 3018

The Supreme Court in this case by a bench of nine Judges overruled M.P. Sharma v. Satish Chandra, AIR 1954 SC 300, which had held the right to privacy is not protected. It also overruled Kharak Singh v. State of U.P, 1963 to the extend it had held right to privacy not protected by the Constitution , although by invalidating domiciliary visits at night on the ground of violation of ordered liberty was implicit recognition of the right to privacy. But in case Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, AIR 1978 ,The right to privacy is protected as an essential part of the right of life and personal liberty under Article 21 as an part of the freedom guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution.

Conclusion: It is becoming the important issue as the code of the Aarogya Setu App is open to anyone so due to the inability to look into the source court and absence of proper working by government bodies we are in a situation where government asking for the trust but not verify.