Friends don’t spy, true friendship is about privacy too. – Stephen King.
Setu’s Satya.
Privacy. Data. Business. Aarogya Setu app, a corona tracing app introduced by Indian government to gaurd people of this virus by alerting the device owner when he/she might enter contaminated zone or is nearby any infected person. But does it really work the way it is said it work? There have been many cases of this app collecting private data in their server and this app doesn’t provide an open source software service. Basically an Open Source Code is something which allows the user to check about the privacy policy of the application. Even after many questions were asked, government declined to provide the code. According to Indian government, the app itself functions by wiping out personal data (location, not registration data) after a certain number of days from when it was collected – 30 days (from your phone, if not already uploaded to the server) 45 days (deleted from server, if not tested positive). Well that’s what we have been told. But do we know the certain limitations where this app is as useless as the flower shower on hospitals where as this money could have been easily used to give the corona warriors a raise in their salary. This app got cachet by Indian government without running a proper security scan on the app. Enough with dilatory, let’s see what this limitation are.
Satya #1.
If you and I live nearby and we both have symptoms but I have corona and you don’t, aarogya Setu won’t be able to know who needs to stay away from whom. It doesn’t even work in apartments buildings.
Satya #2
On 15th April, army official stated and advised army personnels to use app but with cyber precautions. Army personnels carry stratergic data and are also a major concern of national security. Well, this certainly proves that this application works indefatigably but in which direction is the question. Is our data safe? If not, why are we forced to use such an app. Yes of course life is greater than any data, but on what condition?
Article by The Print Media
Satya #3
As we know, corona cases are now being reported asymptomatic. If I have corona under such asymptomatic condition, how will this app recognize whether I am infected or not as it asks questions regarding symptoms? This is quite a greater problem than it seems. It is complete abnegation of ourselves. “The silent spreaders” as known by some public health workers are these asymptomatic yet infected people.
The silent spreaders
Satya #4
The contact tracing application only works in any country if there are at least 50% of population using this application and that too with legitimate input of this data. Do you use this app? Do you upgrade your symptoms everyday? Currently there are 11-12 crore of people using this app. Maybe 70% of them provide legit information about their symptoms. That makes around 8-8.5 crore people using this app properly. That is almost 6.3% of total India population using it properly. Still confident about the app? Let’s see if your optimistic narratives stays till the end.
10 crore+ downloads. Enough?
Satya #5
Other countries have also developed such apps for example ; Singapore, Australia, Norway etcetera. But have kept the app open source software and thus privacy policy can be checked by the user. Even after so many questions asked to government, aarogya Setu hasn’t disclosed the open source code. Well of course there are chances of data being stolen in those app too but they use a decentralised manner for the app. Aarogya Setu app uses a centralised manner. Beyond the legal loopholes, there are technical loopholes as well. The unique digital identity in Aarogya Setu is a static number, which increases the probability of identity breaches. A better approach would be constantly changing digital identification keys like what Google and Apple deploy in their joint contact tracing technology.
Source: BBC world.
The Apple-Google collaboration will ask you to opt in to a system that causes your phone to emit Bluetooth signals to other phones around you. When you are in close contact to another person for a long period of time – maybe more than five minutes, typically – both of your phones record the interaction. When a person tests positive for covid-19, they will have the option of anonymously notifying other phones that they may have been exposed to the virus and encouraging their contacts to self quarantine or seek treatment.
Satya #6
Government claims that the app is secure enough and cannot be hacked. A French ethical hacker named Elliot Alderson, hacked the app over night and sent the data to Indian government which only government should have. -(The issue has been resolved) But bigger question, what if another better hacker hacks this data?!
A warning
Reason to take him seriously
Action by government
And that’s it. Aarogya Setu and its flaws. Leave breach of privacy aside. Does this app really works as what it is designed for? Yes and No. Yes it works. When you enter a contaminated zone, it notifies you. No it doesn’t work in some of the condition as mentioned above.Covid-19 is idiot to digital technologies. All it cares is exponential replication. Digital app does not replace mindful human to human interactions and reporting them to humans in contact tracings. Humans have better iterations and algorithms than apps. Aviation minister of India, Mr. Hardeep Singh Puri said that “Don’t understand the need for quarantine of passenger who has green status on Aarogya Setu app.” No, don’t fall for such beliefs over an app which has so many loopholes. Stay safe. Wash hands. Get quarantined if necessary. Unlike any other democratic country in the world India is being forced to use such an app with no security. And if you live in Noida, you might even get booked for not using the app. We cannot save ourself the way south korea did but we will face consequences of our deeds. Coming to Moon Jae-in’s South Korea, let’s know how theydealt with Corona Pandemic?
How South Korea dealt with corona pandemic?
As the whole world was trying to flatten the curve, South Korea already won the battle against pandemic during early February 2020. Well this story started in 2015 when South Korea faced MERS outbreak. An importation of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Coronavirus into the Republic of Korea in 2015 led to the largest MERS outbreak outside of the Middle East. By the end of the outbreak, 186 laboratory-confirmed cases (185 in Republic of Korea and 1 in China) and 38 deaths had been recorded. They had faced the same we are facing now with higher mortality rate. It lasted maybe even less than 2 months. The Republic of South korea were in sudden panic. Coming back to current scenario, when Wuhan in China reported its first case on 31st December 2019. After a month or so, when this outbreak reached its limit to sky outside China, South Korea was facing the pandemic with more than 3000+ cases involving the members of the church in Daegu.
Cases compared to other countries
Flattened curve of South Korea
So the question arises that how did South Korea contain the virus to spread it further without any lockdown or restrictions? Let me narrate a story of a woman who had tested positive for coronavirus. She, with zero knowledge of her being positive, visited a congregation in a church named the Shincheonji Church in the city of Daegu, some 150 miles south of the capital Seoul. She made contact with few of the members of this yet untitled cluster. The government of South Korea traced all the people she came in contact with and tested them irrespective of their symptoms. Few of them even tested positive for Covid. They kept doing the same on the larger scale and made people realize that this was the same battle they had fought in 2015. Everyone followed social distancing. Later, mass testing and pool testing were started outside Daegu. When officials were asked regarding their special policies to stop the spread, they said ”
As COVID-19 displays very unique features, we needed to be creative and innovative, as well as using traditional methods to combat the virus. For example, drive-thru screening clinics, an ICT [information and communications technology] app called Special Immigration Procedure [provided to new airport arrivals], and Life Treatment Centers for patients with mild symptoms were innovative. If we had failed to separate them and tried to put all new patients in hospitals, our overloaded healthcare system could have collapsed. “
What should India and other countries learn from them?
Since COVID-19 spreads very fast, an early diagnostic test is critical. About 80% of COVID-19 patients have mild symptoms, and only 10% have severe symptoms. So the medical system needs to respond accordingly. In other words, efficient allocation of limited medical resources is very important.
Next greatest advantage against covid is the trust of state and its people. It helps anxiety and also contains the panic among the people. Also, it might help people to follow the only potent vaccine currently which is social distancing.
Did South Korean people had problem while sacrificing the data with Contact Tracing Apps?
“The nation of 51 million people has also taken a big data approach to contact tracing, using credit card history and location data from cell phone carriers to retrace the movements of infected people. Surveys show most Korean citizens are OK with sacrificing digital privacy to stop an outbreak. At the same time, authorities have pushed an intense—but mostly voluntary—social distancing campaign, leaving most bars, restaurants, and movie theaters free to operate.” said the officials.
Coming to the end, I’d like to thank my partner who really helped me make this article work, Vora Dev. The guy behind the scenes. This would not have been possible without you.
Share your views on how India can work on such contact tracing technologies and also any important loopholes of Aarogya Setu app that I might have missed in the comment section. Thank you.
Reference
The Hindu
The TIME
WHO articles
The New Indian Express
nationalgeographic.com
BBC.
Note : The contact tracing application of India is now going Open source. This news came out on the same day ( 26th may 2020) this blog was published.
The following blog is written by Thacker Shubham.
Website : www.amanwithnoideas.com