India releases data-use protocols for its contact-tracing app... after five weeks and 100 million downloads

2020-05-12 04:10

India's government has released the protocol for using data gathered by its Aarogya Setu COVID-19 tracing app, weeks after its April 2nd release and after it was downloaded almost 100 million times.

The protocols [PDF], released yesterday by India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, state that the state-run National Informatics Centre will "Collect only such data as is necessary and proportionate to formulate or implement appropriate health responses."

Data collected includes the user's name, mobile number, age, gender, and profession, as well as which users they have been in contact with, for how long, and where they were.

The user's personal data can be kept for as long as the app is used, but users can request it be deleted within 30 days.

The government will share the data from the app in an anonymised form with other government agencies "With whom such sharing is necessary to assist in the formulation or implementation of a critical health response".

News URL

https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/12/aarogya_setu_data_use_guidelines/

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