India’s Supreme Court ruled this week to confirm the legality of the Aadhaar, considered to be the world’s biggest biometric database. In a 567-page judgement, the five-judge bench decided that the benefits of the Aadhaar Act outweighed the potential privacy risks, but also said that...
Two Indian analysts and three international experts had reportedly confirmed to Huffington Post that the software for the world’s largest identity database had been compromised by a patch that disables its critical security features. The patch, which can be used to generate Aadhaar numbers, is said...
Bloomberg recently wrote that the PhilSys ID system which was recently approved by President Rodrigo Duterte aims to replicate the success of India’s Aadhaar, the world’s largest biometric ID program. Similar to the Aadhaar, the PSA’s Lisa Grace Bersales said that biometric data such as eye...
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) recently refuted reports which said that the country’s national ID card project had been breached. Tech website ZDNet reported last week that a New Delhi-based security researcher discovered that India’s Aadhaar had a vulnerability that exposed the sensitive information...
Researchers and journalists who have questioned India’s national ID system reported that they had been harassed or received criminal cases from government agencies. According to eight researchers, activists, and journalists interviewed by Reuters, said that the government had become extremely sensitive of criticisms against the Aadhaar....
Mozilla executive chairperson Mitchell Baker recently wrote an open letter tackling the issue of privacy in relation to India’s Aadhaar and its existing data privacy laws. Baker warned that there had already been numerous leaks, security incidents, and even occasions where private Aadhaar data had been...
Last Tuesday, Justice DY Chandrachud said that "mere possibility of misuse will not lead to striking down a legislation". As one of the Supreme Court's five-judge bench hearing the Aadhaar privacy case brought by senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, Justice Chandrachud questioned the level of acceptable...
Last Sunday, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) reiterated to the public that the Aadhaar is not a profiling tool and stressed that the identification system is safeguarded by strong laws. In a live chat where questions were asked via Twitter, UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan...
Earlier this week, Senior counsel Shyam Divan argued to the five-judge Constitution Bench that the Aadhaar project is compelling citizens to share their sensitive personal data with private bodies. According to Divan, this is already in violation of fundamental rights, including the right to privacy. Divan...
Last Thursday, Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad assured the public that fingerprint and iris data kept in Aadhaar systems are safe and have not been breached. Speaking at the Delhi School of Economics, Prasad said that the data cannot be compromised even with...