Fake News Alert: Indian Government is not making wristbands along with Aarogya Setu App to monitor patients

Recently, a piece of news started doing round that Government was making wristbands with embedded Aarogya Setu App. This would be used to monitor Quarantined patients. Indian Fact check twitter handle said that the news was fake and baseless. Government is not making any such bands.

#PIBFactCheck

Claim : Centre is preparing to procure thousands of wristbands which will be embedded with its #ArogyaSetu app to monitor movements of #COVID2019india patients in hospital & home quarantine

Fact : there is no such move . Fake and baseless news pic.twitter.com/xyV7pNNCJT

— PIB India #StayHome #StaySafe (@PIB_India) April 22, 2020

Although this technology is used in several countries including Hong Kong and Britain, it isn't still available in India. This fact check also gives relief over the fact that the government is not using Aarogya Setu for surveillance. The app has become the most downloaded app and with that, it has raised my security concerns. Government officials, including the Prime Minister, have endorsed the Aarogya Setu App.

Even in India, Maharashtra and Karnataka already have a home quarantine tracking system. Kerala uses GPS solutions extensively for the same purpose. But the concept of wristwatches is still a stretched imagination.

The news channels have even quoted some official and a document. The said document read: "The tool will also detect, prevent and investigate threats to national security using CDR, IPDR, Tower, Mobile Phone Forensics Data, and Open Street Maps, Google Maps and Offline Maps without internet. The band would monitor everyday behaviour of the person, including where s/he orders food from and the places s/he regularly visits, the multiple routes s/he could take."

The Indian government has denied all the news. This news raises several questions on the security of data of users. But rest assured, the prompt action of the Government to say that this news is fake should be praised.

Also, we should only believe the news that quotes the Government official handles.