KOCHI: Kerala High Court on Tuesday observed that there is “prima facie, an intrusion of privacy,” in the alleged use of personal data of government employees by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) to send bulk WhatsApp and email messages highlighting the government achievements.
Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas made the observation while hearing a petition filed by Rasheed Ahammed, Associate Professor at KTM College, Kollam, and Anil Kumar K M, clerical assistant, General Administration Department, Thiruvananthapuram. The petitioners alleged that personal data submitted for official purposes was accessed and misused for promotional messaging ahead of the Assembly elections.
When the matter came up, the court questioned how the chief minister accessed the data and what safeguards were in place. “If it is not the chief minister, somebody else has accessed the data and sent the messages,” the court observed and asked “What’s the protection for individual data?“
The government pleader submitted that the messages were sent through a business account. The court then asked who manages the account and what protection exists if multiple persons have access to individual data. It remarked that the chief minister would not be personally handling such a business account.
The court asked the government pleader to convince the court, but till then the government cannot send messages to everyone.Senior advocate George Poonthottam, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that members of the judiciary had also received similar messages and that their details are part of Service and Payroll Administrative Repository for Kerala, the government’s employee database. The court responded: “That is a serious allegation. It means the data is being leaked.”
The government pleader said that such messages shall not be circulated until the next posting date. The matter has been posted for further hearing on Friday. The court also orally observed that compelling individuals to receive messages against their will amounts to an invasion of privacy. “Suppose people do not want to receive any messages. The government cannot compel them to read messages they do not want to,” it said.
The petitioners contended that the campaign targeted state employees using mobile numbers furnished for salary credit intimations.