Track or treat: Monitoring opponents through Iran’s fake app to treat corona

Mouaz Mohamed

At a time when Iran is experiencing a major crisis due to the outbreak of the corona virus, the mullah regime has taken advantage of this situation politically, by tracking opponents through a phone app that Tehran claims is aimed at reporting the spread of the virus.

A few days ago, the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education launched a mobile app called AC19, which was announced by government-sent text message.

The text message stated, “Dear citizens, before going to the hospital, install this program and use it to determine whether you or your loved ones have been infected with the virus.” It also included a link to download the app from an Iranian app store called Cafe Bazaar.

The app can be downloaded from other app stores, including Google Play. It has already been installed by 4 million people.

The Iranian government claimed that the app helps residents to know whether they are infected with the emerging corona virus or not by entering some personal data.

However, it is likely that Tehran launched the app in order to monitor its citizens and suppress opponents, not to report infections of the corona virus.

According to technology news website ZDNet, the Iranian app requires some information that is useful for tracking people, including the names, addresses, birth dates and current locations of users, which is then stored in a database. However, the app does not inform users whether they should visit the hospital and is therefore seen as useless.

The application interrogates the user through a set of “yes or no” questions about any symptoms being experienced. As soon as the user answers the questions and clicks “send”, the results reach the authorities for evaluation.

According to VICE, the app raised concern when it became clear that about 40% of Android users in Tehran could not turn off the location tracking feature.

The AC19 app was developed by the Iranian company Sarzamin Housmand, previously Smart Land Solutions, an important tool in the hands of the government to monitor opponents and activists.

Deleting the app

For its part, Google deleted AC19 after the controversy surrounding it due to the misleading allegations presented by the app.

According to the technology website Gizmodo, the app misleading alleged it could detect the corona virus, which is impossible, since infection can only be confirmed through a personal microbiological analysis of a sample taken from the patient’s body.