Digital Health ID Concerns

Context: There is a need to address privacy concern in Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM).

About Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM)

• Objective: It will provide every citizen a unique digital health ID, linked to a personal health record (PHR) and Aadhaar.
• Mechanism: The Digital Health IDs to every citizen were created by default at the time of registration for vaccination from the CoWin app.
• Significance: It will improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of health service delivery; give access to store personal medical history digitally and share it as required; allow seamless transfer of patients across health care facilities and provide details of health insurance providers.

Challenges in ABDM

• Serious concern in privacy and consent: As it contains personal details and assigned by default, it raised concern in privacy and consent because India doesn’t have a personal data protection law.
  • Millions of individuals and multiple different institutions will seek access to this data and leakages can prove damaging.
• Loss in demographic data: The users will be allowed to permanently deactivate their PHR and health ID, which could be result into loss in demographic details.

Conclusion: Numerous of deaths happened due to lack of oxygen, and the vaccination programme delayed due to unavailability of vaccine. Data collection is necessary to deliver more efficient services, but that in itself is not sufficient to assure such services if attention is not paid to the basics.