Saturday, 17 October 2015 - 6:35am IST | Agency: dna | From the print edition
Coming clean on Aadhaar
In an interesting disclosure before the Supreme Court of India, the Union government has now revealed that citizens do have the option of blocking their biometric data that has been shared with the government for getting the Aadhaar unique identification number. The information is of particular significance because till date the public has been kept in the dark on the privacy issue — notwithstanding that it is privacy concerns that have put the Aadhaar project under the Supreme Court’s scanner.
In an interesting disclosure before the Supreme Court of India, the Union government has now revealed that citizens do have the option of blocking their biometric data that has been shared with the government for getting the Aadhaar unique identification number. The information is of particular significance because till date the public has been kept in the dark on the privacy issue — notwithstanding that it is privacy concerns that have put the Aadhaar project under the Supreme Court’s scanner.
It appears that the Centre was forced to make the revelation to assure the court that the Aadhaar card is voluntary in nature. According to Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi, once the biometric information is blocked by the donor, it would remain blocked until the user wants to reactivate it.
The Aadhaar project has generated fears of profiling of political rivals and that it could be deployed for purposes other than welfare schemes. The government must answer why it hid the blocking facility from the public till date and at the same time widely publicise this flexibility so that those uncomfortable with the Aadhaar’s biometric data collection can block it at the earliest.