Govt denies any instance of data leak from Aadhaar database

Central Government of India has denied any instance of data leak from the Aadhaar database.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2021

Aadhaar was designed as a digital identity platform which is inclusive, unique and can be authenticated to participate in any digital transaction.

This has transformed the service delivery in our country, conveniencing residents and reducing leakages.

Direct benefit transfer, subscription to various services and authentication at the point of service delivery are some of the benefits which have accrued.

Aadhaar followed the principle of incorporating privacy by design, a concept which states that IT projects should be designed with privacy in mind.

Aadhar collects only minimal data, just sufficient to establish identity. This irreducible set contained only four elements: name, gender, age and communication address of the resident.

Under the scheme, random numbers with no intelligence are issued. This ensures that no profiling can be done as the number does not disclose anything about the person.

The Aadhaar Act also has clear restrictions on data sharing. No data download is permitted, search is not allowed and the only response which UIDAI gives to an authentication request is ‘yes’ or ‘no’. No personal information is divulged.

Besides the minimal data which UIDAI has about a person, it does not keep any data except the logs of authentication. It does not know the purpose of authentication. The transaction details remain with the concerned agency and not with UIDAI.

UIDAI has also built a facility wherein one can ‘lock’ the Aadhaar number and disable it from any type of authentication for a period of one’s choice, guarding against any potential misuse.