India's government has mooted plans to merge all citizens’ IDs with health records in a move that has alarmed data privacy advocates. A Aadhaar plan announced on Monday seeks to use the Aadhaar-based biometric identification of patients, based on consent, to digitalise and unify India’s health records database. The health ministry hopes the system will strengthen the exchange of digital health data across the country and enable it to use the information for analytics and medical research. The blueprint document maintains that no data privacy will be compromised.
India's government has mooted plans to merge all citizens’ IDs with health records in a move that has alarmed data privacy advocates. A National Digital Health Blueprint plan announced on Monday seeks to use the Aadhaar-based biometric identification of patients, based on consent, to digitalise and unify India’s health records database. The health ministry hopes the system will strengthen the exchange of digital health data across the country and enable it to use the information for analytics and medical research. The blueprint document maintains that no data privacy will be compromised.