Leader of the Opposition in Kerala Ramesh Chennithala on Thursday accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of opening the door for U.S.-based firm Sprinklr to exploit the personal health data of Keralites for profit.
Mr. Vijayan refused to take any questions on the controversy at his daily COVID-19 briefing, saying he had clarified the issue on Wednesday. He said he was ending his regular press conferences and would inform the media when he wanted to meet them again.
Mr. Chennithala alleged that Mr. Vijayan had misused his office to mandate that field workers funnel the health data of COVID-19 vulnerable persons to the digital repositories of Sprinklr by using the “free” mobile phone app supplied by it.
Data trade chances
He said Sprinklr possessed the data of nearly 1.75 lakh Keralites. Ernst and Young had pegged the value of the private medical information of an individual at ₹10,000. Forbes valued it at ₹75,000.
By a conservative estimate, Sprinklr held medical information worth ₹700 crore. It could easily palm off the data to private players in the pharmaceutical and health sector without the consent of the government or the knowledge of citizens, he claimed.
