HYDERABAD: With app-based transport and delivery workers (Uber, Zomato and so on) being mandated to download Arogya Setu app for working, voices are being raised against how the data is going to be handled by private companies.
Hyderabad-based Indian Federation of App-Based Transport (IFAT), which represents lakhs of app-based workers, said ‘Aarogya Setu’ app records the location of the individual, allowing the company to monitor a particular individual or group of individuals they consider to be disruptive to their operations.
Shaik Salauddin, the national general secretary of the association said, “They can track people who are meeting frequently and take punitive measures against them as and when they feel threatened by their actions.”
They also claimed that the companies will have access to health data and can take action as per requirement. “This would ensure that the companies don’t have to shell out any aid or insurance, in case the worker contracts the virus while working for them,” IFAT added.
Salauddin also stressed the need for a data protection law and the absence of which exacerbates the situation with the possibility of companies using the data they have peered from the employees order to intimidate or exploit them.