CHENNAI: As cities get unlocked and authorities relax restrictions around its mandatory enforcement, the country’s national contact tracing app Aarogya Setu has seen monthly downloads rate fall by over 90% in August compared to its launch in April. Data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower shows that while Aarogya Setu had average monthly downloads of around 8 crore in the month of April (when it first launched), downloads have steadily dipped with August recording just 0.42 crore new monthly downloads.
Similarly, daily downloads of the app were at 0.27 crore in April and are at 0.01 crore in August. “To date, Aarogya Setu has generated 140.6 million (14.06 crore) downloads across the Google and Apple app stores and that comes to around 13.8% of India’s population as per our calculations,” a spokesperson for Sensor Tower said.
On Google Play store, the app ranked number one for all app downloads from April 3 to May 29. It fell out of the top 10 download rankings on June 24 and its lowest ranking was on September 21 when it ranked No 107 for all app downloads, data showed.
The number of users who deleted or uninstalled the app could not be ascertained and the National Informatics Centre (developer of the app) did not respond to TOIs queries on the same. Developed by Meity, Aarogya Setu uses GPS and bluetooth tech to record details of all people that a smartphone holder may have come in contact with, and alerts them if any one of those people, at a later point in time, test positive for Covid-19.
The fall in the app’s adoption comes at a time when citizens prepare for return to normalcy and tech-enabled contact tracing becomes more critical. A recent study by Google and Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Medicine showed that with an app used by 15% of the population and a well-staffed contact-tracing workforce, countries can see a 15% drop in infection rates and an 11% drop in Covid-19 deaths.
After making the app mandatory for both public and private sector workers and for various public transport, the government diluted the provisions in May amid growing concerns on data privacy and issues in enforcement. Besides concerns raised by cyber law specialists, the app was reviewed poorly by tech publication MIT Technology Review which gave only 1 out of 5 stars to the app for collecting more data than necessary.
To ensure transparency, the government made the app open source and also started a bug bounty program urging security experts to report bugs and vulnerabilities. Earlier this week, Sanjay Dhotre, the minister of state for electronics and IT told the Parliament that there are 15.71 crore registered users of the Aarogya Setu app and the app is equipped with standard security features to protect confidentiality and security of user data.
Similarly, daily downloads of the app were at 0.27 crore in April and are at 0.01 crore in August. “To date, Aarogya Setu has generated 140.6 million (14.06 crore) downloads across the Google and Apple app stores and that comes to around 13.8% of India’s population as per our calculations,” a spokesperson for Sensor Tower said.
On Google Play store, the app ranked number one for all app downloads from April 3 to May 29. It fell out of the top 10 download rankings on June 24 and its lowest ranking was on September 21 when it ranked No 107 for all app downloads, data showed.
The number of users who deleted or uninstalled the app could not be ascertained and the National Informatics Centre (developer of the app) did not respond to TOIs queries on the same. Developed by Meity, Aarogya Setu uses GPS and bluetooth tech to record details of all people that a smartphone holder may have come in contact with, and alerts them if any one of those people, at a later point in time, test positive for Covid-19.
The fall in the app’s adoption comes at a time when citizens prepare for return to normalcy and tech-enabled contact tracing becomes more critical. A recent study by Google and Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Medicine showed that with an app used by 15% of the population and a well-staffed contact-tracing workforce, countries can see a 15% drop in infection rates and an 11% drop in Covid-19 deaths.
After making the app mandatory for both public and private sector workers and for various public transport, the government diluted the provisions in May amid growing concerns on data privacy and issues in enforcement. Besides concerns raised by cyber law specialists, the app was reviewed poorly by tech publication MIT Technology Review which gave only 1 out of 5 stars to the app for collecting more data than necessary.
To ensure transparency, the government made the app open source and also started a bug bounty program urging security experts to report bugs and vulnerabilities. Earlier this week, Sanjay Dhotre, the minister of state for electronics and IT told the Parliament that there are 15.71 crore registered users of the Aarogya Setu app and the app is equipped with standard security features to protect confidentiality and security of user data.
More News
‘Never before in Indian history…’: Economist Surjit Bhalla says unprecedented number of jobs created under Modi government – Times of India
Kotak Bank sees Rs 300-500 crore hit to profit from RBI curbs – Times of India
Stock market today: BSE Sensex opens 300 points up; Nifty50 above 22,500 – Times of India