Aarogya Setu totally safe by design: NITI Aayog

New Delhi: The Central government's Aarogya Setu mobile application is based on 'privacy-first by design' principle keeping in mind the safety and privacy of users' data, said Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog.

He added that the user data from the app would only be provided to those government officials who were directly in charge of containing the spread of the coronavirus in India.

Kant further informed that Aarogya Setu mobile application has been built to ensure privacy and security of personal information that was collected from people. It is based on 'privacy-first by design' principle.

"Aarogya Setu has a clearly defined protocol for access to data. National Informatics Centre is the fiduciary of the data, and data is only shared with government officials directly involved in Covid-19 related medical and administrative interventions on a strictly need-to-know basis and limited in scope only to their direct work," said Kant.

Concerns over the Aarogya Setu App were raised when a French 'ethical hacker' claimed to have access of the users' data and had highlighted security bugs within the app which could privacy ramifications.

Clarifying apprehensions that some users may have related to data security, Kant said: "When an individual provides his/her mobile number for registration, the Aarogya Setu server assigns an anonymous, randomized unique device identity number (DiD) and associates it with their mobile device.