Abstract
<h3>Key Messages</h3> Under the Aadhaar system, biometric and demographic data stored in a central database can pose a significant threat to the data privacy of individuals with potentially stigmatizing conditions such as mental health disorders. The emerging use of artificial intelligence in digital solutions (including health interventions) can further complicate this situation. There is often patient exclusion in the development of artificial intelligence systems in mental health research and clinical practice. Based on Global Data Protection Regulation and other data privacy regulations, this article provides guidelines for mental health policy makers, professionals, technologists, and related health system stakeholders to protect the individual’s data privacy.
Highlights
The Mental Health Care Act 2017 in India represents a landmark legislation advocating for the rights, dignity, and autonomy of persons facing the challenges of mental illness and aims to transform the delivery of mental health care across the country.[1,2] The new law mentions digital data privacy; yet few studies have focused on this to date.[3]
Meaningful consent is already hard to achieve in the majority of clinical settings in India due to low awareness, literacy, and agency to exercise the right to informed choice; and consent can get further complicated if clinical data are automatically fed into an artificial intelligence (AI) system
There is an urgent need for the inclusion of privacy rights and advisories in all digital mental health Linking of data program material that is disseminated across health care among beneficiaries, and at a deeper level, providers may in the medical and technological training accidentally curricula to instill the fundamentals of worsen preprivacy in medical and engineering existing social, graduates.[54] cultural, and/or
Summary
The Mental Health Care Act 2017 in India represents a landmark legislation advocating for the rights, dignity, and autonomy of persons facing the challenges of mental illness and aims to transform the delivery of mental health care across the country.[1,2] The new law mentions digital data privacy; yet few studies have focused on this to date.[3] This has contributed to its low prioritization in emerging digital mental health programs in India. Global Health: Science and Practice 2021 | Volume 9 | Number 3 resident, called the “Aadhaar” number.[4,5] This linkage raises critical questions of how well the system and the community-at-large are prepared for such a large-scale data linkage and its implications for privacy This has especially important implications for individuals living with mental illness, as safeguarding their data privacy is essential to reduce their risk of being judged or facing stigma, hostility, or adversities in personal or workplace relationships. We discuss the challenges in protecting mental health data privacy, guidelines to protect the personal data privacy of individuals with mental health disorders in India, and implications for digital mental health services in other low-resource settings
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