Contact Tracing Data Collected Through Aarogya Setu App Deleted, Says Govt

In a written response in Parliament, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said the contact tracing feature of the Aarogya Setu app has been discontinued.

The Aarogya Setu app had raised some privacy concerns after its launch in 2020

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The Centre has told Parliament that contact-tracing data collected by the Aarogya Setu app during the Covid-19 pandemic had been deleted from government databases. In a written response in Parliament, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said the contact tracing feature of the Aarogya Setu mobile application has been discontinued.

"In accordance with the provisions of the (Aarogya Setu Data Access and Knowledge Sharing Protocol, 2020), the contact-tracing feature of the Aarogya Setu mobile application has been discontinued and contact-tracing data collected through it has been deleted," the government said in response to a question by Congress MP Dr Amar Singh.

The government said approved officials of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, state Health Departments, the National and State Disaster Management Authorities and District Civil Surgeons were given secure access to the data collected through the Aarogya Setu app.

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The Aarogya Setu app had raised some privacy concerns after its launch in the initial months of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. 

Aarogya Setu is a mobile application that keeps people informed of their potential risk of Covid-19. The app, which was launched on April 2, 2020, used a bluetooth-based contact tracing mechanism. It recorded details of all the people one came in contact with throughout the day. The application sends an alert if any contacts test positive for Covid. Aarogya Setu app also provides medical advisories pertaining to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last year, National Health Authority (NHA) CEO RS Sharma said the Centre would repurpose CoWIN and Aarogya Setu as India's health application.

Sharma had said that Aarogya Setu was being repurposed as India's health application while CoWIN was being repurposed for national immunisation programme.

"Aarogya Setu is now being repurposed as India's health application. CoWIN, Covid-19 vaccination portal is being repurposed for national immunisation program and as a health management information system for small doctors," IANS quoted Sharma as saying.