Privacy And Confidentiality In Matters Related To The Protection And Management Of Health Data

Aishwarya Anil Kumar, School of Law, CHRIST (Deemed to be University)

ABSTRACT

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerabilities in our country's data privacy, and protection legislation Reports of leaks of the Aadhaar Data and the Covid-19 test results show the lack of a robust mechanism to protect sensitive health data. Unlike Europe and the United States of America, India lacks legislation exclusive to data protection. Although the IT Act, read along with the IT rules, has contributed to data protection to some extent, the intent of the IT Act was not meant for data protection. Hence various regulations on the commercialization of healthcare data, the meaning of sensitive health data, the various purposes for which healthcare data can be used, and the privacy concerns in this regard are lacking to a great extent. Through this paper, the author seeks to analyze whether the existing data protection regime is sufficient to protect sensitive health data and the limitations of these existing legislations. The author further seeks to analyze whether data protection regulations have been laid down in industries where sensitive data is required— such as the Insurance industry. Additionally, the author delves into whether the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, introduced by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), has relevant provisions to protect patient privacy.

Keywords: Data Protection, Confidentiality, IT Act, Health Data, Sensitive Data