Aadhaar data safe behind walls 5 feet thick: Centre

Aadhaar data is secure behind walls that are 15 feet high and five feet thick, the government's top lawyer said on Wednesday, arguing in the Supreme Court that biometric data taken from millions of Indians was safe. The complex where Aadhaar data is kept is in Manesar near Delhi, Attorney General KK Venugopal told the five-judge constitutional bench which is hearing petitions questioning the privacy of data taken for the unique ID system.

The top lawyer also offered to show a four-minute video prepared by Ajay Bhushan Pandey, the CEO of the UIDAI, the authority that issues the 12-digit Aadhaar ID.

If you just have to identify the citizens, what is the need to centralise and aggregate their personal data under the Aadhaar scheme, the top court asked the Centre. "If your only goal is identification, then there are less invasive means to ensure identification (of citizens). Where is the necessity to aggregate and centralise the data," the bench asked the Centre.

The bench then gave the example of Singapore and said every person there has to get a chip-based ID card and his or her personal information remains with the person and not with the government authorities. The arguments remained inconclusive and would continue on Thursday.