MeitY notifies Aarogya Setu app data access rules including jail term on breach

New Delhi: The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has notified a set of data access and knowledge sharing protocols for the government’s contact tracing app, Aarogya Setu, in view of concerns raised around its privacy features. The protocols include clearly specifying the purpose for which the data is collected in the Privacy Policy of the app and stating a timeframe for deleting the data after its purpose is over.

The government will collect only data deemed ‘necessary and proportionate’ and it will only be used to formulate or implement appropriate health responses. Contact and location data shall, by default, remain on the device on which the Aarogya Setu mobile application has been installed and it will only be updated to formulate or implement appropriate health responses, according to the notification.

“In order to formulate appropriate health responses for addressing the Covid-19 pandemic, data pertaining to individuals is urgently required. Here, individuals mean persons who are infected, at high risk of being infected or who have come in contact with infected individuals. This data includes demographic data, contact data, self-assessment data and location data,” it said. It said that contact, location and self-assessment data of an individual shall be permanently deleted after 180