Kerala IT Secy Says He is Solely Responsible for Decision to 'Hand Over' COVID-19 Data to US Firm

Days after the opposition slammed the LDF government for allegedly handing over data of COVID-19 patients to a US-based company, IT Secretary M

Sivashankaran said on Saturday he was solely responsible for taking the decision "for effective handling of the situation."

"As per my professional evaluation, it was not necessary to consult the legal department at that time. If my call was wrong, I am ready to rectify it. I took the decision and no one else is responsible. I signed the purchase order. It was my call," he said.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had on April 15 justified his government's move, saying the state has complete control of the personal information collected.

The Opposition Congress has charged that a US company had been entrusted with collecting data on virus-infected patients and that it was a violation of their fundamental rights.

Vijayan had said that the application, provided free of cost by the company, is deployed as software as a service (SaaS) model.

SaaS is a software distribution model in which a third-party provider hosts applications and makes them available to customers over the Internet.

Opposition Congress Leader Ramesh Chennithala has alleged that the data, collected by the government machinery, was being uploaded not in the government server, but in that of the foreign company.

Chennithala also termed as a serious issue, "handing over" such secret data considered as "protected health information" by countries, to a foreign private agency.

The ward-level committees set up by the government for the COVID-19 fight collects information of those in home isolation, the elderly and those at the risk of contracting the disease using a questionnaire and uploads it on the private agency's server.

Congress leaders, including Oommen Chandy, state Congress chief Mullappally Ramachandran and others have also attacked the government over the issue.