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Wasn't it warned earlier, including in court, that people's medical data and personal information will be sold under the guise of Corona? Wasn’t it made possible by everyone?
P. S. Remesh Chandran
Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
Article Title Image By Adobe Stock. Graphics: Adobe SP.
Wasn't it warned earlier, including in court, that people's medical data and personal information will be sold under the guise of Corona? Wasn’t it made possible by everyone?
P. S. Remesh Chandran
Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
In a petition filed by opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, the Kerala government informed the High Court that they are not collecting and storing information, including medical information, of corona patients in Kerala. It later came out that all such information was collected and sold to an American company, and the money for that was received by the family of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, exactly by his daughter. Though the media, police, government and political parties in Kerala did not like to investigate this but that was how the testimonies came out. (Because this grave revelation was very reluctant to be investigated, people strongly believed in the testimony). Even while doing all these, the government informed the court that only the tower location of Corona patients' mobile phones was being collected!
The government's explanation to the court was that it was to know where they were at any given time and who there were in their contact list that the tower locations of these corona patients and corona suspects were collected. Had the court and the court officials including the lawyers involved in that case been more cautious and inquisitive, no one including Pinarayi Vijayan's family could have got hold of and sold abroad this information about the sick and weak people of Kerala.
In reality, under the guise of the government, not the government, a group of people's representatives and officials who were selling abroad whatever they were taking through government were collecting not only the tower locations of patients and their contacts but also their phone call records. Collecting phone records of individuals under any circumstances is a constitutional violation and is punishable by imprisonment and fine. It is shocking that this court procedure did not go into that process. What was alleged in the complaint also was that this was a violation of the constitution.
It was actually the Call Data Records or the CDR that were being collected. As for the case, everyone tried to get this out of the picture, turned it into only a collection of tower locations, and the explanation and the excuse that it was for disease control was accepted and approved by the court. Later, when they were sold, all the people who had handled the case who could have prevented it actually became culprits under the law. They pretended not to know while the whole world knows that in the modern digital era, any personal data can be stolen and sold for a price. Even the petition was that this collected information would be misused. The worry about it was inherent in the petition itself. Even then the same feared thing happened in Kerala with the help of everyone and the stolen information reached even America for being sold.
Even a state government has the authority to collect the information of only those who have committed very serious crimes and who have put the country in very serious situations that too, only after obtaining prior permission, and also, the police has no authority to grant such permissions. It is a very clear violation of the Constitution and rule of the law that the Home Minister, Health Minister, Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary of the Government of Kerala have done by illegally and illicitly collecting the complete information including the medical and personal information of Corona patients and their related contacts and relatives and friends and stealing all their phone data records from the central government under the guise of the state government and selling them abroad.
The government's explanation to the court was that it was to know where they were at any given time and who there were in their contact list that the tower locations of these corona patients and corona suspects were collected. Had the court and the court officials including the lawyers involved in that case been more cautious and inquisitive, no one including Pinarayi Vijayan's family could have got hold of and sold abroad this information about the sick and weak people of Kerala.
In reality, under the guise of the government, not the government, a group of people's representatives and officials who were selling abroad whatever they were taking through government were collecting not only the tower locations of patients and their contacts but also their phone call records. Collecting phone records of individuals under any circumstances is a constitutional violation and is punishable by imprisonment and fine. It is shocking that this court procedure did not go into that process. What was alleged in the complaint also was that this was a violation of the constitution.
It was actually the Call Data Records or the CDR that were being collected. As for the case, everyone tried to get this out of the picture, turned it into only a collection of tower locations, and the explanation and the excuse that it was for disease control was accepted and approved by the court. Later, when they were sold, all the people who had handled the case who could have prevented it actually became culprits under the law. They pretended not to know while the whole world knows that in the modern digital era, any personal data can be stolen and sold for a price. Even the petition was that this collected information would be misused. The worry about it was inherent in the petition itself. Even then the same feared thing happened in Kerala with the help of everyone and the stolen information reached even America for being sold.
Even a state government has the authority to collect the information of only those who have committed very serious crimes and who have put the country in very serious situations that too, only after obtaining prior permission, and also, the police has no authority to grant such permissions. It is a very clear violation of the Constitution and rule of the law that the Home Minister, Health Minister, Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary of the Government of Kerala have done by illegally and illicitly collecting the complete information including the medical and personal information of Corona patients and their related contacts and relatives and friends and stealing all their phone data records from the central government under the guise of the state government and selling them abroad.
Written on 19 August 2020 and first published on: 11 June 2024
Original article in Malayalam written on 19 August 2020 and first published on: 16 July 2023
SM1362. കൊറോണയുടെമറവിലു് ജനങ്ങളുടെ മെഡിക്കലു്ഡേറ്റയും വ്യക്തിഗതവിവരങ്ങളുംവിലു്ക്കുമെന്നു് കോടതിയിലടക്കം നേരത്തേതന്നെ മുന്നറിയിപ്പുകിട്ടിയിരുന്നതല്ലേ? എല്ലാവരുംകൂടിയതു് സാദ്ധ്യമാക്കിയതല്ലേ?
https://sahyadrimalayalam.blogspot.com/2023/07/1362.html
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