The National Executive Committee constituted under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, in exercise of powers conferred upon it by clauses (h) and (i) of sub-section (2) of section 10 of the Act, issued an order dated 29.3.2020 constituting, among others, an empowered group on technology and data management to identify problem areas and provide effective solutions therefor delineate policy, formulate plans, strategize operations and take all necessary steps for effective and time-bound implementation of these plans/policies/strategies/decisions in relation to Covid-19 pandemic. As per a decision of the empowered group, its chairperson issued an order dated 11.5.2020, notifying the Aarogya Setu Data Access and Knowledge Sharing Protocol, 2020, to ensure secure collection of data by the Aarogya Setu mobile application, protection of personal data of individuals and the efficient use and sharing of personal or non-personal data for mitigation and redressal of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In accordance with the provisions of the said protocol, the contact tracing feature of the Aarogya Setu mobile application has been discontinued and contact tracing data collected through it has been deleted.

Approved officials of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, State Health Departments, the National and State Disaster Management Authorities and District Civil Surgeons were given secure access to the data collected through the Aarogya Setu.

Contact tracing data collected through the Aarogya Setu mobile application has been deleted.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

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RKJ/BK

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