SC SAYS BIOMETRIC AUTHENTICATION OF AADHAAR PRONE TO MISUSE
If biometric authentication is attached to every transaction entered into by a person, it would “form a wealth of information” necessitating the need for data protection, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday. A Bench, hearing a clutch of petitions challenging Aadhaar, apprised the Unique Identification Authority of India of its apprehensions, saying biometric authentication of Aadhaar number in every transaction could lead to aggregation of metadata of citizens, which can be collated and used for many purposes, including surveillance. “Fingerprint by itself does not disclose any information. But, when it attaches with all the other information, it forms a wealth of information and then comes the need for data protection,” the Bench said.
If biometric authentication is attached to every transaction entered into by a person, it would “form a wealth of information” necessitating the need for data protection, the Supreme Court (SC) observed on Wednesday.
A five judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, hearing a clutch of petitions challenging Aadhaar and its enabling 2016 law, apprised the the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) of its apprehensions saying biometric authentication of Aadhaar number in every transaction could lead to aggregation of meta data of citizens, which can be collated and used for many purposes including surveillance.
“Fingerprint by itself does not disclose any information. But, when it attaches with all the other information, it forms a wealth of information and then comes the need for data protection,” the bench, also comprising Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, said. “If my biometrics are attached to every transaction I undertake, it ceases to be just an identification mark,” Justice Chandrachud said and referred to a hypothetical instance. He said if a person has been authenticating Aadhaar since birth to admissions in nursery, CBSE examination, first job and visits abroad, then it would lead to “wealth of information” which can be collated, aggregated and misused for many purposes. Senior advocate
Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the UIDAI and the Gujarat government, said in most of the cases, authentication is done only once.
“For example, in case of PAN cards, it is once in a lifetime. For mobile sims, it is done only at the time of obtaining it. So, where this multiplication of authentication from morning to evening comes from,” the senior lawyer asked, adding, “realistically speaking, there is no trail of authentication from morning to evening. No realtime tracking is done”. He then asked the bench to examine the Aadhaar law on the ground of “reasonableness” and said as of now, there was no such possibility of aggregation and if any such things happens in future, the court may examine them at that time.