Madhya Pradesh govt breaches privacy of quarantined; all data in public

French ethical hacker Robert Baptiste, who goes by the name Elliot Alderson on Twitter and had recently 'exposed' flaws in Centre's Arogya Setu app, has claimed that the coronavirus web portal of Madhya Pradesh government shares location data and other personal details of users.

Taking to Twitter, Alderson said that the COVID-19 dashboard of Madhya Pradesh government was created with names of quarantined people and shared their current location data.

"In India, the state of Madhya Pradesh created a #Covid19 dashboard with - the name of quarantined people - their device id and name - os version - app version code - the GPS coordinates of their current location - the GPS coordinates of their office," he wrote on Twitter, likening the web portal to a surveillance system.

The Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government in Madhya Pradesh has created a dashboard to monitor people placed under quarantine. The portal shows GPS coordinates of quarantined user's current location.

Flaw Arogya Setu app

Recently, Baptiste had made headlines in the Indian media after finding flows in the Aarogya Setu, a mobile application developed by the Narendra Modi government to trace the spread of coronavirus pandemic among the Indian population. The Government of India, however, rejected his claims and said that the app was safe for users.

Following the government's denial, he used the alleged flow in the Arogya Setu app and revealed details of coronavirus in the PMO and the Defence Ministry. He revealed that five people each in the PMO and the Defence Ministry had reported that they were unwell on May 6.

Several Opposition leaders, including Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, had also raised questions over the Arogya Setu mobile app, which has been made mandatory by the Modi government for govt and private employees.