AAROGYA SETU: HELPING APPLICATION OR A TOOL OF SURVEILLANCE- (Article)
The Government of India
launched a mobile application named Aarogya Setu to fight against the
novel Coronavirus 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 that require physical interviews with people but
mobile technology has made the work easier and safer that makes usage of GPS
and Bluetooth features in smartphones 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
been developed by the 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
- Self Assess which helps the users to identify the
symptoms and risk of this disease,
- E-pass integration,
- Updates of COVID-19 on local as well as national
coronavirus 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 the
country.
- User Status which tells 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 29th
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
became the 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 violates the fundamental rights of citizens
as prescribed in Article 21 of part 3 of the Constitution. There are leading
cases i.e.
- R. Rajagopal v. State of T.N.
(1994) 6SCC 632
This case is popularly
known as the “Auto Shankar case” in which three questions had been raised.
Whether a citizen could prevent another person from 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.
The Supreme Court has
expressly held as “right to privacy” or right to be let alone is
guaranteed by Art. 21 of the Constitution 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 save 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 becomes
a legitimate subject for comment by the press and media among others.
2. The right to privacy
or the remedy of action for damage is simply not available to public officials
as long as the criticism concerns the discharge of their public duties.
- 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 extent it had held the 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.[1]
Conclusion: It is becoming an 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 the government is asking for the trust but not verify.
-Simran
Mody University.
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