Read on Twitter
Aarogya Setu. I know you& #39;ve heard of it. And you& #39;ve also heard that it& #39;s *probably* bad for your privacy. In today& #39;s free story in @TheKenWeb, @PratapVikramSin and I tell you exactly why. Also, what would have been a better approach. https://the-ken.com/story/fishing-with-dynamite-indias-contact-tracing-overreach/">https://the-ken.com/story/fis...
1) The app asks for too much information. Contact tracing, what the app is intended for, needs just Bluetooth. That& #39;s it. Nothing else. No GPS. But the app needs GPS location, which ties people and their contacts to a location. https://the-ken.com/story/fishing-with-dynamite-indias-contact-tracing-overreach/">https://the-ken.com/story/fis...
2) Presumably location data might help in policy decisions. That& #39;s something that ET reported about earlier. But better options exist. Take the Covid-19 Mobility Network. Using data from FB, they work with multiple state govts to help understand the situation at the ward-level.
3) Let& #39;s consider the self-assessment test in Aarogya Setu. It collects the user& #39;s name, travel history, health history, profession and assigns them a risk level. But-this is important-these things have nothing to do with the risk of transmission, only severity of disease!
4) Aarogya Setu isn& #39;t open source. Fine. Risk high at this point. But it& #39;s a complete black box! No one knows how it works, what it& #39;s doing behind the scenes. A white paper both for its software architecture and how the app really works would& #39;ve been good https://bit.ly/3a6lAej ">https://bit.ly/3a6lAej&q...
We tried to decode the app& #39;s various risk assessment and with @ShirtShanks& #39;s help put them on a graphic. Trust me, figuring this out wasn& #39;t easy. And there& #39;s no reason it shouldn& #39;t have been.
5) I& #39;ll end with just one more. The privacy policy. It& #39;s not specific. It& #39;s difficult to read. Singapore has a similar app and its privacy policy says, as clear as water: This app will only be used for Covid-19 tracing purposes. Aarogya Setu? Nope. https://bit.ly/3a6lAej ">https://bit.ly/3a6lAej&q...
