Government mulling law to protect Aadhaar data theft

India doesn’t have a specific law for protecting personal data that is collected by various agencies and the Aadhaar card, the 12-digit biometric unique identity number is also no exception. Currently, data protection is covered under the Information Technology Act, 2000, the primary law in India dealing with cybercrime and electronic commerce.

While privacy and data protection is central to the legal challenges facing Aadhaar applications, a few months ago a major data leak of 13 crore card holders on poorly secured websites and possible misuse has resulted in concerns. While, the government is keen to expand the reach of Aadhaar, it also agrees that it is necessary to plug the leaks, especially in subsidy and welfare schemes.

The Supreme Court has decided to settle the issue of privacy before taking up Aadhaar pleas. The government is planning a specific law to protect data interests and has set up a committee that would make suggestions to ensure that personal information was protected, the Supreme Court was told on Tuesday.

During a hearing on the constitutional status of the right to privacy, retired SC judge BN Srikrishna and a 10-member panel had been tasked with drafting the law on data protection.

While issuing Aadhaar cards to all Indian residents, one of the main concerns of the petitioners was related to the storage and sharing of biometric information with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). UIDAI is responsible for collecting data, including fingerprints and iris scans.

But there have been several instances where details from Aadhaar Card have found their way in public domain. For instance, more than 200 government websites had published names of beneficiaries of welfare schemes with their addresses and Aadhaar numbers.