PROTECTION LAW WILL BE PUT IN PLACE: UIDAI
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is working with Justice Srikrishna panel to put in place a stricter law for data protection and security, the UIDAI CEO Dr Ajay Bhushan Pandey informed the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Making a power point presentation for over two and a half hours, before a five-judge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.K. Sikri, A.M. Kanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, the CEO made it clear that the apprehensions with regard to leakage of data and security breach have no basis.
He said the data is encrypted and secured in the depository, which is not connected with Internet, and there was no possibility of leakage or security breach and in the last seven years there has not been a single breach of data.
At this juncture both Justice Sikri and Chandrachud wanted to know from the CEO as to whether data collected can be shared for commercial gain by the authentication user agencies, who are all private companies. They asked the CEO whether before the data is saved and ‘submit’ button is pressed, was there a scope for data transfer.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is working with Justice Srikrishna panel to put in place a stricter law for data protection and security, the UIDAI CEO Dr Ajay Bhushan Pandey informed the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The CEO explained that since the software for authentication agencies are provided by the UIDAI, the moment the data is collected, it is encrypted and can’t be stored or transferred. The judges pointed out that the possibility of data leakage at this end couldn’t be ruled out completely.
Justice Chandrachud told the CEO “unless you have a robust data protection law, it is not possible to secure the data at the ‘mirror image end’ (where authentication takes place). Justice Sikri said, “There is a possibility of data breach. You can’t vouchsafe for all times to come particularly when authentication agencies take consent.” The CEO conceded, “We took the help of world leaders in biometric technology to ensure high level of accuracy and that the data is secured.”