The Indian government has recently introduced a COVID-19 tracker mobile app which is capable of monitoring the spread of the virus. According to the Mint report citing two sources from the smartphone industry, the app will be soon installed on smartphones

Noted cybersecurity expert- Elliot Alderson (Twitter name) who previously exposed flaws in Aadhar, has now claimed that the Aarogya Setu app has a vulnerability that compromises the privacy of 90 million Indian users. The French cyber expert alerted the team behind

Aarogya Setu is a COVID-19 tracking app that was recently launched by the Government of India. All central government employees were asked to download the Aarogya Setu app and come to the office only when the app status show as 'safe'.  Now, Xiaomi’s upcoming smartphones will have a pre-installed with

A court asked the Indian government on Friday to respond to a challenge against its order for compulsory use of a contact tracing app by public and private sector employees returning to work amid the world's biggest coronavirus lockdown.

A court asked the Indian government on Friday to respond to a challenge against its order for compulsory use of a contact tracing app by public and private sector employees returning to work amid the world's biggest coronavirus lockdown.

A court asked the Indian government on Friday to respond to a challenge against its order for compulsory use of a contact tracing app by public and private sector employees returning to work amid the world's biggest coronavirus lockdown.

Mandatory provision challenged in court

Will it not be wise to constitute a group of independent members from the civil society - software and legal professionals - to audit the app?

Rejecting charges by the opposition that the Aarogya Setu application breaches privacy, Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has asserted that the platform is "absolutely robust, safe and secure" in terms of privacy protection and data security.

The health ministry has urged the citizens to download the mobile application, saying it will enable them to assess the risk of catching the novel coronavirus infection which has claimed 1,694 lives and infected 49,391 people across the country so far.

"There has been no sort of hacking or breach of privacy in the Aarogya Setu. The allegations are based on amateur attempts by changing location & data correlation to portray it as hacking. The app would have shown similar data to anyone at a particular location," senior government officials said.

The Aarogya Setu app, which has been downloaded by around 90 million people, has been made mandatory for government as well as private sector employees and for people residing in containment zones – a localised area that has reported a positive case of Covid-19 infection.

IIF urged that the hearing should specially involve medical health professionals, academics from IITs and digital rights and public policy experts to provide inputs.

Close to nine crore users had downloaded the Aarogya Setu mobile application till May 4. The Centre has made it mandatory that government and private sector employees use it to bolster efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aarogya Setu is currently available on iOS and Android, and nearly 9 crore users have already downloaded the app

Privacy experts and technology lawyers have long questioned the efficacy of using contact tracing apps at large scale without adequate testing for coronavirus (Covid-19)

The app is the government's mobile application for contact tracing and disseminating medical advisories to users in order to contain the spread of Covid-19

The Aarogya Setu app, developed by the government, will be expanded to all feature phone users, with the Centre planning to partner with telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone-Idea, who will enable calls to their subscribers, a top official told ET. There are around 550 million feature phone users in the country.

Centre has mandated all its employees as well as those in private firms to download the app.

The user "agrees that the Government will not be liable for…any unauthorized access to information.”

The Aarogya Setu app, which was developed by the government to track those with the disease and alert people about their proximity, has given rise to fears of surveillance by the state as well as the security of the personal data that a user needs to fill in after downloading it.

The government has mandated public sector and private employees who go to offices to download the app, as also people who are in the containment zone - localised areas where there is a Covid-19 positive case detected.

According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s data, over 40 crore Indians use feature phones.