Indian government urges people to sign up to Aadhaar – the world’s largest biometric ID system – while the Supreme Court still needs to determine its legality
As reported in August of this year, the Indian Supreme Court (SC) acknowledged that the right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty” and is “inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution.”
In the same context, the SC had announced it will be hearing petitions on Aadhaar related matters (the term – meaning “foundation” – stands for a 12 digit unique-identity number supposedly issued to all Indian residents based on their biometric and demographic data) in November.
According to a Bloomberg report, India’a Prime Minister Narendra Modi is calling for an expansion of Aadhaar, even though its constitutionality is still to be debated. The SC has set January 10th as the beginning of the final hearings.
While officials say Aadhaar is saving the government billions of dollars by better targeting beneficiaries of subsidized food and cash transfers, critics point to unfair exclusions and data leaks. The latter on the one hand also fear that the database might lead India into becoming a state of surveillance. On the other hand, they are concerned about the high risk of major leaks, such as the ones reported by a news agency in India, the PTI (Press Trust of India): “Personal details of several Aadhaar users were made public on over 200 central and state government websites.”
Meanwhile, Medianama, a source of information and analysis on Digital and Telecom businesses in India, has launched a list of already compromised leaks and encourages people to point out any similar incidents.