DPDP for healthcare and clinic platforms
Healthcare and clinic platforms handle highly sensitive personal data about patients, which raises the stakes under the DPDP Act. Consent must be explicit and purpose-bound, security safeguards face the highest penalty tier, retention has to be deliberate, and patients can exercise rights of access and erasure against their records.
The highest duty of care
Health data is among the most sensitive a product can hold, and the Act's obligations bear down hardest where the data is sensitive and the user base is vulnerable. The duty to maintain reasonable security safeguards, backed by penalties of up to INR 250 crore, is not a formality for a platform holding medical records.
Consent in healthcare is layered
Treatment, billing, communication, and any research or analytics use are separate purposes, and each needs its own clear consent. Patients should understand exactly what their data is used for, and a single consent at registration does not cover later uses.
The retention tension
Medical records carry their own retention expectations, while the Act requires you to delete personal data you no longer need. Resolving that means deliberate, documented retention schedules per data category, with automated deletion when the period ends, rather than keeping everything forever by default.
"The honest starting point is a map of where patient data lives and who it flows to."
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Written by Smoketrees Digital LLP, a product engineering studio based in Bengaluru. We implement DPDP compliance directly into codebases for Indian product companies.