Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SHP)

Bengaluru, May 14: An engineer from Bengaluru reportedly began having concerns of being under constant surveillance due to the government-based app Aarogya Setu. Against the idea of downloading the app, and to refrain from filling his personal information, the software engineer managed to hack the application. He then skipped through the steps where he was required to fill in the data like name, age, gender, travel history, and COVID-19 symptoms. He also managed to get past the permissions required for allowing access to Bluetooth and GPS.

This would keep the engineer safe and not disclose his whereabouts on the app used to trace COVID-19 people and those at risk of infection. If the individual is safe, a green badge will appear on the app, this is exactly what appears in this engineer’s Aarogya Setu application.

Meanwhile, it would not be wrong to assume that the engineer is not the only one using the hacked version of the app. He could likely have shared it with his peers. This would result in more number of users shielding their location and skipping the necessary processes and questions.

This report comes at a time when an ethical hacker Elliot Alderson had raised concerns over privacy issues of the coronavirus contact tracing app.

Initially, it was voluntary to install the application. But as days have gone by, authorities from the central government to local governing bodies, have attempted to make the app mandatory.

As per the government, over 10 crore unique users have installed Aarogya Setu. A ranking released earlier stated that Aarogya Setu was ranked seventh on the global chart for being the most downloaded non-gaming app.