HC PIL questions 'sharing' Covid-19 patients' data with private firm Sprinklr

KOCHI: A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed before the Kerala High Court seeking a probe by the central government into the deal between the state government and Sprinklr in handling data of Covid-19 patients.
The petition was filed by Balu Gopalakrishnan of Pothujanam Road at Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram through advocate Jaykar KS.
A forensic audit by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to bring out the alleged foul play in the IT contract has been sought by the petitioner.The petitioner is also seeking a court directive to the state government to sever all relations with Sprinklr, which is alleged to be a company based out of USA. As an interim relief, the petitioner is asking for a court order to the state government to stop uploading sensitive data to the web servers of Sprinklr.
It is alleged by the petitioner that sensitive data of Covid-19 patients are with Sprinklr, which was uploaded on a daily basis. Even if there is a non-disclosure agreement between the government and Sprinklr, violation of agreement cannot be enforced upon a foreign company, the petition said. It is also alleged that the government did not seek the permission of the patients while sharing their data. The petition may come up for admission hearing before the vacation bench of the high court on Tuesday.