In this article, Venkatesh Hariharan makes the case for striking the right balance between privacy rights and data surveillance during COVID-19 times. Excerpts:

"At this moment, when all of India is faced with a 21-day lockdown (and perhaps a partial lockdown after 21 days), that is estimated to cost $120 billion, privacy seems to be the least of our worries. However, privacy is a fundamental right of every citizen and the state has the primary responsibility of upholding this right."

On keeping privacy and good data governance practices at the centre of data collection:

"Wherever data is collected by the state, it must be the minimum required to get the job done. For example, self-testing apps should not collect personally identifiable information, except essential information like age, and gender. This data should be deleted after the crisis is over."

Read the full article here.