Covid-19: Privacy debate heats up over India contact tracing app

A group of boys look at their mobile phones, during a nationwide lockdown in India to slow the spread Covid-19, in Dharavi, one of Asia's largest slums, during the coronavirus disease outbreak, in Mumbai, India. About 80 million downloads of Aarogya Setu – meaning ‘health bridge’ in the Sanskrit language – have been reported, a small fraction of the 500-million smartphone user base in a population of over 1.3 billion. — Reuters

BANGKOK/NEW DELHI: Indian authorities plan to make a contact-tracing mobile app mandatory for everything from taking public transit to going to work, raising concerns among digital rights experts about privacy and increased surveillance.

Aarogya Setu, the app launched by the Indian government earlier this month to stem the novel coronavirus outbreak, evaluates users' risk of infection based on location, and their medical and travel history. It uses Bluetooth and location services to trace a user's contacts.