India’s contact tracing app is going open source

India said it will publicly release the source code of its contact tracing app, Aarogya Setu, in a relief to privacy and security experts who have advocated for this feature in recent months.

Ajay Prakash Sawhney, secretary in the ministry of electronics and information technology, made the announcement on Tuesday, slating it as “opening the heart” of Aarogya Setu’s

Android

app, which amassed over 115 million users in fewer than 60 days

, to allow engineers to inspect and tinker with the code. The source code will be published on GitHub at midnight Tuesday.

Sawhney said the government will also offer cash prize of up to $1500 for identifying bugs and vulnerabilities in the code of Aarogya Setu.

More to follow…