E-com sites flout rules on Aadhaar

Seek Unique ID details for EMI option

While e-commerce websites are inundating customers with offers, they are silently seeking their Aadhaar details for availing EMI or payment services. This violates a recent ruling of the Supreme Court barring private firms from collecting an individual's Aadhaar data. Yet these details are sought by Amazon, Flipkart when giving EMI options to customers closer to payment gateway. This interest-free credit is availed of through mobile apps by people who do not have sufficient cash to purchase their desired product.

Internet researcher Anivar Aravind said, “Both the e-commerce giants, Amazon and Flipkart, are violating the Supreme Court judgement and illegally collecting Aadhaar for offering instant credit in partnership with Capital Float and Kissht platforms.”

When this paper approached Amazon to comment, its spokesperson said, “Complying with regulations in India is a top priority. We are evaluating the impact of the recent judgment and will take necessary steps to comply” Flipkart did not reply.

Experts opine that the judgement is applicable from the moment it is pronounced, so not abiding by it is a contempt of court. Mr Aravind said, “They (Amazon) should have evaluated it after pulling off that feature immediately after the court order. They haven’t done it even after pointing it out to them multiple times. Companies need to do legal evaluations when a feature is live and not after it violates the law.”

Another technical researcher K. Rajesh points out that while these companies are “certainly violating the law, why can’t UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India, which is the nodal agency for Aadhaar) simply stop access to these people.”

Experts opine that the judgement is applicable from the moment it is pronounced, so not abiding by it is a contempt of court.

Amazon spokesperson says it is evaluating the impact of the recent SC ruling.