The Kerala High Court, on Friday, permitted the state government to utilise the services of the US-based IT firm Sprinklr, for processing data, subject to stringent conditions.
The court restrained Sprinklr from analysing or processing the data related to COVID-19 patients and directed it to re-transfer to the state government, any data it has obtained.
In an interim order on a plea seeking to quash the state government's contract with Sprinklr, a division bench, comprising Justices Devan Ramachandran and T.R. Ravi, also directed the state government to anonymize all data of COVID-19 patients collected by it and allow the IT firm to access data only after completing the anonymization process.
Restraining Sprinklr from any act of breaching the confidentiality of data provided by the Kerala government, the court directed it not to deal with the data directly or indirectly in conflict with the deal signed between the state government and the IT firm.
The court also restrained Sprinklr from using the name or logo of the state government for its promotional purposes.
It also directed the state government to take informed consent from individuals before allowing a third party foreign company to process their data.
Earlier, the Kerala government had filed a statement in the High Court, rejecting charges of illegality in its IT contract with the firm for processing data related to COVID-19 patients and contended that initiation of penal action for breach would fall within the ambit of Indian IT Act.
The Centre had also filed a preliminary statement in connection with the case, saying sharing of sensitive data, especially of health-related information of large number of people, is to be resorted to in a very careful manner.
In his plea, petitioner Balu Gopalakrishnan had said the only concern is whether the data stored in the web server of company is safe and whether it can be used by the company for monetary gains.
Three persons were tested positive for COVID-19 in the state on Friday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said at the press conference in Thiruvananthapuram. All three cases were from Kasaragod, and they contracted the disease through contact. Fifteen people were cured of the disease on Friday.
Earlier in the day, a four-month-old died of COVID-19 at Kozhikode Medical College. The baby was suffering from congenital heart disease.
(With PTI inputs)