After making the Aarogya Setu app mandatory for government/private sector employees, the Indian government is joining hands with telecom companies such as Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone-Idea for COVID-19 contact tracing calls. The move is probably directed at feature phone users who can’t access the Aarogya Setu app.
So, if you get a call in the near future inquiring about any symptoms, don’t be surprised. The plan is to reach out to as many as 900 million users via networks. Moreover, plans are on to get the Aarogya Setu app to nearly 550 million feature phone users. It is also being tested on Jio Phones to help reach 150 million users approximately.
In terms of how these calls will work, Abhishek Singh, CEO of MyGov said an IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) will interact with the users and check if they have any COVID-19 symptoms or not. If the symptoms are found to be positive, it will alert local authorities. The IVRS system will work in all Indian languages and the government is considering a pan-India rollout.
Smartphone users will also start getting notifications from their service providers to install the Aarogya Setu app.
The government considers the app pivotal in their war against COVID-19 post lockdown. However, it is not without controversies. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi dubbed it a "sophisticated surveillance system". Even before that, there have been concerns regarding how user data is being handled and how it can be used in the future. Moreover, the lack of proper data protection laws in India add fuel to fire.
On the other hand, Abhishek Singh, CEO of MyGovIndia, the organisation which developed the application, told The Print that the India will use the data only for certain critical purposes such as medical emergencies and that the data will not be used for any other work. The app has been downloaded more than 50 million times.
