New Delhi, May 26: Aarogya Setu, the mobile application used for medical self-assessment and tracking of COVID-19 patients, is now an open source app, announced the Indian government on Tuesday. The source code for Android version of the application was released today, whereas, the same for iOS platform would be released within the next two weeks, said a statement issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Kerala Airport Authorities Not Asking For Aarogya Setu App from Domestic Passengers Landing at Thiruvananthapuram Airport.

Aarogya Setu app was launched on April 2, 2020 and has been repeatedly promoted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an effective weapon to curb coronavirus transmission. Till date, the app has been downloaded by 114 million users across the nation.

"Opening the source code to developer community signifies our commitment to the principles of transparency and collaboration. Aarogya Setu's development has been a remarkable example of collaboration between the government, industry, academia and citizens," the IT Ministry said.

Read Full Statement

Watch: Release of Aarogya Setu Android Version Source Code

The application had, earlier, drawn criticism towards the government from Opposition and a section of civil society. Privacy fears were raised by critics, alleging that the application could be intruded and the users' personal information may be breached. Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had alleged that app could also be used for non-COVID-19 surveillance.

"The Arogya Setu app, is a sophisticated surveillance system, outsourced to a pvt operator, with no institutional oversight - raising serious data security and privacy concerns. Technology can help keep us safe; but fear must not be leveraged to track citizens without their consent," Gandhi had said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 26, 2020 08:36 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).