Is Contact Tracing Application An Eclipse On The Right To Privacy Of Sensitive Health Data: An Analysis Of The Aarogya Setu App

Abstract

Every State today stands at a different footing under the global pandemic. With the help of artificial intelligence, many countries have successfully launched their own contact tracing application to understand the pattern of virus, its growth and later use this application for easing down the restrictions. The Government of India, too launched its own application - “Aarogya Setu.” Since the day of its launch, till date, there has been constant criticism surrounding it. The lack of proper guidelines on data privacy and no statutory law backing it, the use of this application inevitably poses a big threat to the privacy rights of every registered user. The current application runs on machine learning and algorithms and profiles every user through constant surveillance. The government can, if need be, mandate the use of this application under “reasonable restrictions.” The author thus tries to analyse the privacy rights of every individual who uses this application and if the guidelines on surveillance and contact tracing applications released by the World Health Organization are being complied with by the Indian government or not.