Experts Call for Dismantling of Aadhaar Data Already with Private Firms

Pavan Duggal and other experts called for a new way of dealing with potential privacy and information protection issues that could arise in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the validity of the Aadhaar scheme. As the Supreme Court had ruled that an Aadhaar card is not a form of identification that private entities and service providers can demand of potential or existing customers, the fact that many customers around the country have already submitted this data to private banks, telecom providers, and others means that there is a wealth of private information in the hands of these firms.

Speaking to the Indo Asian News Service (IANS) Duggal, India’s leading legal expert in cyber laws said, “The Aadhaar verdict is a huge sigh of relief for citizens. The humongous task now is to ensure that the data that is already with private companies is not misused or sold,” adding, “The data now needs to be dismantled but the onus is to make sure companies do not make copies of the data and use it to monetize their operations. The big question is which agency will audit this humongous task.”

Calling for a “fresh ecosystem” within which the Aadhaar card would now have to operate and be used, and commenting on the fact that private firms had made investments to incorporate the use of biometric data as part of the “know your customer” (KYC) process that they used to verify identities of customers, he said that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had already registered more than 50 first information reports against private service providers and firms, for Aadhaar data breach.