Geofencing – How is it used to combat COVID-19 outbreak in India?
The Government of India is currently using its powers under the Indian Telegraph Act to get information from telecom service providers in order to track COVID-19 cases across the country through its COVID-19 Quarantine Alert System (CQAS) application. This is not the only application that is used to track and monitor COVID-19 cases. States and research institutes are developing numerous apps mainly for quarantine enforcement and contact tracing. Geofencing is currently playing a critical role through these apps to ensure the enforcement of quarantine and tracing of infected or suspected COVID-19 cases. However, the lack of definite privacy and data protection laws within India and the apps’ technical limitations makes them risky to be implemented during these trying times.