Sprinklr deal controversy

Sprinklr deal is a data deal between the government of Kerala and Sprinklr, a citizen and customer experience management (CXM) firm founded by a non resident keralite , to collate and manage the COVID-19 data of people.

This deal was signed by the IT department of the government of Kerala.

On 10th April 2020, Ramesh Chennithala alleged that the government had given the personal data of 175,000 people, including the COVID-19 patients and those under home isolation in the state without their consent or knowledge.

Chennithala further falsely alleged that the Covid-19 related data collected across the state were going into the server of “marketing and PR (public relations) firm” Sprinklr .

The state government refuted the allegations, stating that the company, which offers its service to the World Health Organization, is run by a person from Kerala, its Software as a Service (SaaS) tool is offered free, and the data is stored in centers within the country.

The high court of Kerala asked the state government to file a report on a petition challenging its agreement with Sprinklr for processing of data related to coronavirus patients.

On 24th April in an interim order, the Kerala High Court accepted the state government's case and permitted it to utilise the services of the Sprinklr, for processing data, subject to stringent conditions. The court ordered the government to ensure that measure were taken to restrain Sprinklr from analysing or processing the data related to COVID-19 patients and directed it to re-transfer to the state government, any data it has obtained.

Court asked to make sure from any act of breaching the confidentiality of data provided by the Kerala government, the court directed it not to deal with the data directly or indirectly in conflict with the deal signed between the state government and the IT firm.

The court also restrained Sprinklr from using the name or logo of the government of Kerala for its promotional purposes. It also directed the state government to take informed consent from individuals before allowing a third party foreign company to process their data.

For a few days, the government stood to lose the public recognition it had received, even if grudgingly, for its response to the pandemic.

The corruption and nepotism allegations, including the transfer of ration card data, turned out to be baseless and were not included in court petitions. Only the allegations of administrative lapses in engaging Sprinklr and risks of a privacy breach were seriously pursued.

It was let off only after the high court accepted the government’s argument that the decision to engage Sprinklr was taken with the intention of preventing the spread of the virus and the assurance that safeguards to protect personal data are in place. The court noted the Kerala government’s stand that it “cannot continue the fight against COVID-19 without the assistance of the software provided by Sprinklr,” and stated that it will not be issuing any orders to obstruct the government’s efforts.

Background

Sprinklr was founded in 2009 by Ragy Thomas, a technology marketing executive previously with email marketing company Bigfoot International. Thomas initially funded the company himself, with servers operating out of the basement of his home.

Time Line

The data transfer of personal details of citizens from the government to sprinklr company had started on 25 March 2020. However, the deal was signed on 2nd April 2020. The initial contract had no clause about data protection. The opposition Ramesh Chennithala, who first raised this issue on 10th April 2020. The allegation was that the government had given the personal data of the quarantined public staying at home without their consent or knowledge. and he accused this deal was signed by IT department without due diligence or consultation with the state Legal Cell or even the Department of Health. The clause regarding data protection was added as an afterthought.

References

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