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The Karnataka high court, in its interim order prohibiting the government of India and National Informatics Centre (NIC) from transferring the response data of users of the Aarogya Setu app, observed that sharing of health data of citizens without their consent will violate the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution.
A division bench of judge Abhay Oka and Justice S Vishwajith Shetty noted "The information contains data about the health of the user which all the more requires the protection of the right to privacy."
The petition filed by the cybersecurity activist Anivar A Aravind had particularly sought an order restraining the respondents during which the petition was pending from proceeding with the Aarogya Setu app and with the info collected, in any manner, whether the gathering of knowledge from the overall members of the general public is stated to be voluntary or involuntary.
Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves appearing for the petitioner had heavily relied on the judgment of the Supreme court within the case of Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (retired) v Union of India. He had acknowledged the supply regarding sharing of response data containing personal data by NIC with various Government departments and Public Health Institutions of the government.
Further, he submitted that there was no sunset clause for the information collected. The sunset clause provides that unless specifically extended by the Empowered Group on account of the continuation of the covid-19 pandemic in India, the said protocol is going to be effective for 6 months from the date on which it had been issued.
Accordingly, the court passed an interim order to restrain the Central Government and therefore the National Informatics Centre(NIC) from sharing the response data given by a private within the 'Aarogya Setu' app with other government departments and agencies, without obtaining the consent of the users.
The Court has given liberty to the Centre to hunt vacation of the order by filing an affidavit showing that consent of users for sharing the response data has been obtained.
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