Context: Recently, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had launched the open application program interface (API) service for Aarogya Setu App.
About Open API Service

• Users: It can be availed by organizations and business entities, who are registered in India with more than 50 employees, 
• Application: Organizations and business entities can use the service to query the Aarogya Setu Application in real-time and get the health status of their employees or any other Aarogya Setu User, who have provided their consent for sharing their health status with the organization. 
• The Open API shall only provide the Aarogya Setu status and name of the Aarogya Setu User (with User's consent). 
• No other personal data shall be provided through the API.

Advantages of Open API Service

• In order to help businesses and the economy to start functioning while being safe, it enables organizations to check the status of Aarogya Setu and integrate it into its various Work from Home features. 
• The Open API Service of Aarogya Setu addresses the fear/risk of Coronavirus infections and helps the people, businesses and the economy to return to normalcy.

About Aarogya Setu

• Aarogya Setu was launched in April 2020. It was developed by the National Informatics Centre under the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology.
• The motto of Aarogya Setu is ‘Main Surakshit, Hum Surakshit, Bharat Surakshit’.

Since its launch, Aarogya Setu has continuously innovated and introduced more novel features like:

• e-pass integration,
• QR Code scanning,
• Sharing of Health status with family/known persons, etc.

Aarogya Setu has emerged as the most downloaded contact tracing App in the world, with more than 15 crore users.

• It aids the efforts of frontline health workers and the Government in Covid-19 mitigation and management efforts.
• The Aarogya Setu ITIHAS interface which uses location data and Aarogya Setu analytics to predict emerging hotspots at Sub Pincode levels has been very effective in helping the health officials and administration to take necessary precautionary steps.
• More than 30,000 hotspots have been identified at a very granular level of 300 m X 300 m and shared with State Governments and Districts.

Concerns

• Government has issued guidelines to the employers to ensure that all their employees install this app.
• This violates the right to privacy, which is a fundamental right as held by the Supreme court in Puttaswamy case 2017.
• The data-sharing and knowledge-sharing protocol for the Aarogya Setu is prone to misuse, considering that India still doesn’t have data protection laws.
• Vulnerable sections like migrant workers can’t afford the smartphone and the internet.
• In May 2020, the government opened sourced the code for its contact tracing app Aarogya Setu’s Android and iOS versions.
• Open sourcing the code for an app allows developers to take a closer look at how the app functions. They can also find bugs in the system and report the same to the creator.