Kerala High Court Pulls Up State Government For Deal With US Firm On Covid-19 Data, Allows It With Riders

The Kerala High Court has allowed the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) to continue its deal with the US firm to record data of Coronavirus (Covid-19) patients but with strict conditions.

At one point of time, it even indicated that it could have stayed the deal.

A two-judge bench of the High Court comprising Justices T R Ravi and Devan Ramachandran, in an interim order, said it would have inspected the deal but for the emergency arising out of the pandemic virus.

“We are not happy with the deal. We cannot agree on several explanations the government has put forth. We are not interfering only because the government said that only Sprinklr (the US company) has the capacity to handle so much data,” they observed.

The judges, however, ordered that the state government get the patients’ consent before using their data. They made it clear to the state government that Coronavirus patients and suspects should be informed that their data will be handed over to the US firm, Sprinklr.

They also said all data should be made anonymous and the US firm could access them only if anonymity was maintained.

The directions came after the government counsel told the court that seeking patients’ consent could lead to an anti-government campaign in the state.

The bench said the data should not be commercialised at any cost and barred Sprinklr from using Kerala government’s name and logo in its advertisements.

The US firm should also hand over all data once the contract expires. Kerala government’s counsel told the judges that Sprinklr’s services were offered “free of cost” and the state accepted it due to the “emergency situation”.

The bench came up with a slew of questions including why Sprinklr alone came forward to offer its services and why talks were held with the US firm before Covid-19 outbreak.

The Kerala government told the court that data was secure and no third party can access it. The state said the data was loaded on to a ‘private service’ only during the pilot test and they are now stored on Amazon cloud in Mumbai.

Welcoming the High Court order, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the media that the bench had rejected the allegations made by the Opposition.

He said his government will go ahead with the Sprinklr contract as directed by the High Court.

The LDF government began using the citizen experience management platform of Sprinklr to help it record data on Covid-19 patients and suspects.

Media reports in Kerala alleged that US pharmaceutical major Pfizer has reportedly obtained the data of Covid-19 patients in the state. (Details are here.)

Sprinklr had offered its services as a “donation” but the terms for obtaining and storing data have been questioned. There are also questions over the charges for the services provided by the firm. (Details are here).

So far, 450 persons have tested positive for Covid-19 in Kerala with the pandemic claiming three lives.