Even private parties can use Aadhaar for ID authentication

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The government has proposed rules to enable private entities to carry out Aadhaar authentication. Right now the Aadhaar authentication can only be carried on by government agencies in the interest of good governance.

“Through an amendment enacted in 2019 to the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016; entities were allowed to perform authentication if the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is satisfied with their compliance with regard to standards of privacy and security specified by regulations and is either permitted by law to offer authentication services or seeks authentication for a prescribed purpose,” the ministry of electronics and information technology said in a statement.

Good governance

Private parties which plan to use the Aadhaar authentication for good governance purposes will need to send a proposal to the government justifying the use. The government may then send it to UIDAI for approval. The government has called for public comments on the proposal by May 5.

Aadhaar authentication is a process by which the Aadhaar number along with demographic information (such as name, date of birth, gender etc) or biometric information (fingerprint or iris) of an individual is submitted to UIDAI’s Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) for its verification and UIDAI verifies the correctness of the details submitted, or the lack thereof, on the basis of information available with it.

By giving such permission to private companies, social media platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter may also ask for Aadhaar-based verification. If this happens then these sites which already store our data will have more of it.

SC decision

There have been many controversies in the past regarding Aadhaar, the decision to make it mandatory was also challenged in the court. In one of its decisions on September 26, 2018, the Supreme Court had banned the use of biometric authentication systems by private companies. The Supreme Court said that this is contrary to the fundamental basis of privacy.

Now after bringing this proposal, it may seem like a violation of the fundamental right to privacy.