In India, a billion identities at risk, Modi widens digital reach
SHIVAM Shankar Singh woke last month to an e-mail from an Indian government department. It had a name, address, mobile phone number and bank account with a code for money transfers and investments made in a dairy farm. None of the details were his.
The e-mail contained details submitted to a programme that collects personal and biometric data, and was meant for someone from the eastern state of Bihar. Singh, a polling campaign manager for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in Manipur, a state further east, rang the phone number listed on the email but it didn’t work.
“That shook me,” said Singh, who posted about the incident on Twitter. The email did not request information or ask him to click a link, suggesting it was not a phishing bid, so he did not report it to the police.
“It seemed like a fake identity was made up using my email to corner government benefits,” he said. “Or it could’ve been a mistake. But I’m sure no one wants all his personal information leaked to strangers. And this is happening at a time when the government wants a cashless, digital India.”
The state entity that captures personal data said no information was leaked from its systems. The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, the department listed on the email, said it has ordered an inquiry into the matter.
Whatever the circumstances, the episode raises fresh questions about the Unique Identification Authority of India. Better known as Aadhaar, which means “foundation” in Hindi, it was created in 2009 to identify citizens and ensure they receive state benefits in their bank accounts.
Aadhaar is getting more attention: Modi, who scrapped 86 per cent of India’s currency in early November to curb the illegal hoarding of cash, has urged citizens to enrol. With a 12digit number assigned to users, Aadhaar is key to Modi’s plan to move transactions online. He wants to make it compulsory.
The government is seeking to link the database, with information on about 88 per cent of the population of more than 1.2 billion, including children, to all state services – from school admissions to passports and the purchase of cooking gas. In effect, it would create more large databases. But in a nation without an over-arching privacy law, Indians have few options for redress in the event of identity theft or data leaks.
It’s an issue other countries are grappling with: The UK announced in 2010 it was scrapping a plan for a national identity register after objections that it infringed on civil liberties. France is debating a mega database for biometric details of citizens, citing the threat of terrorism. The US Federal Trade Commission said identity theft complaints were the second-most reported in 2015, rising more than 47 per cent from 2014.
“In India, you have the Aadhaar number doing the same thing as the social security number. It envisages to keep track of absolutely every transaction with government and private companies,” said Subhashis Banerjee, a professor at the Delhi-based Indian Institute of Technology. Banerjee and his team are awaiting peer reviews for a paper that examines ways to strengthen Aadhaar and its related systems, including appointing a thirdparty online auditor.
“You have to give the UIDAI credit for this incredible solution in an incredibly complicated country like India,” said Banerjee. “But with its vast amounts of data, the UIDAI needs more scrutiny.”
The programme now has 582 banks, brokerages and government departments listed as registered users permitted to access Aadhaar’s data. Google Inc. estimates India’s digital payments industry will grow 10 times to US$500 billion (RM2.3 trillion) by 2020.
At the same time, private companies obtaining and offering services based on Aadhaar data have proliferated.
The UIDAI said in a briefing this month it had shut 12 private websites and 12 mobile applications and was on the verge of closing 26 more for illegally obtaining Aadhaar numbers or enrolment details.
Lawyers arguing against Aadhaar in a bundle of cases – some oppose the whole programme, others its expansion – in the nation’s highest court said last month the state’s policy of collecting data through private agencies raises privacy concerns.
The state says the identification cards “would only be issued on a consensual basis” and the “information shall however not be used for any purpose other than social benefit schemes,” court documents show.
“In any system there may be some errors and there have been some cases of misdemeanour in Aadhaar,” said Ajay Kumar, additional secretary at the Information Technology Ministry, referring to the risk of data leaks by companies collecting data. “But the systems in place are very solid and the misdemeanours are statistically very small,” Kumar said.
“Because of one or two cases of misdemeanour we can’t discard the whole thing,” Kumar added.
Modi opposed Aadhaar before coming to power, saying it violated national security and the privacy of citizens.
Now, Aadhaar has become part of his push for cashless transactions in a nation where a quarter of the people can’t read or write but a third own phones that can be used for online transactions. — WP-Bloomberg
I’m sure no one wants all his personal information leaked to strangers. And this is happening at a time when the government wants a cashless, digital India. Shanker Singh, a polling campaign manager for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in Manipur