'Aarogya Setu safest app, designed keeping privacy in mind'

The Aarogya Setu, COVID-19 contact-tracing app, is the safest application and was designed keeping privacy in mind, said Ajay Sawhney, chairman of Empowered Group-9, which has been given the responsibility for technology and data management for combating COVID-19 crisis.

"A lot of work was done over data privacy... Aarogya Setu app will continue to play a crucial role in India's fight against COVID-19. The app has been developed in order to alert people before they come in contact with infected patients, it also enables self-assessment," Sawhney said in a press conference here.

He said that the application was "designed keeping privacy in mind" and is the "safest app."

Sawhney said that the movement history of positive patients is combined with the self-assessment data submitted by others, which enables to identify potential hotspot areas and take preventive action. Information on 697 such spots have been sent to states, he added.

"A unique anonymous randomised ID is generated for the device of a new user, only this ID is used, name of the user is not used by the app," he further said.

( With inputs from ANI )