A look at Aarogya Setu through the Right to Information lens

The Right to Information Act is one of the foremost tools in the hands of the common individual which allows them to demand accountability from the Government through transparency.

Since the introduction of the Aarogya Setu application, it has been embroiled in privacy related controversies. However, questions have also been raised about its transparency. Information pertaining to the application such as its source code, the group of volunteers who helped to develop it as well as the individuals and/or organisations who will have access to the data collected through the app was not made public.

While the source code has now been made public, other questions still remain. We have been filing Right to Information requests on all these aspects since the introduction of this application and in this blogpost have highlighted the responses that we have received till now.

Since there was no public debate which was held before the deployment of the application, it becomes even more imperative to ensure that accountability is demanded from the government by mobilizing mechanisms such as the Right to Information Act. The Government has a legal responsibility to provide satisfactory responses on queries raised under this Act failing which further action may be initiated by concerned individuals and organizations.

If you want IFF to file an RTI on your behalf on Aarogya Setu or on any other topic, please reach out to me via email at [email protected] .

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As much as I’d like to give this a shot, I can’t think of a good & useful question yet :mag:

On a related note, does this new development mean that we cannot expect answers from the government about the “PM Cares” fund?

Yes, RTI requests can only be filed with Public Authorities so no answers will be obtained by filing requests under the RTI Act.

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