Aadhaar was introduced in India in 2011 by the then UPA-led Government. There has been a severe criticism against the possible misuse of Aadhaar parameters including fingerprint and biometric information. According to WikiLeaks, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have already accessed crucial biometric information such as fingerprints and Iris patterns.
The WikiLeaks took to Twitter and revealed that there is a possibility that the CIA spies might have already accessed India’s national ID card database with several hashtags.
Have CIA spies already stolen #India‘s national ID card database? #aadhaar #biometric https://t.co/zqJmkaoiw8 #modi
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 25, 2017
If you are unaware, a US-based company named Crossmatch provides relevant biometric devices for the Aadhaar project. The company has been named in the report released by the WikiLeaks. Crossmatch is a partner of ExpressLane core component, which is a data fetching tool used by the CIA to offer biometric data security.
According to the Times of India, the report was not published by WikiLeaks and by another website.The UIDAI official confirmed to media sources that the biometric information collected from the people will never reach Crossmatch or any other third-party officials since the data are captured in an encrypted format and stored in servers fully owned by Aadhaar.
Cross Match entered into a partnership with UIDAI by obtaining the required Certificate of Approval from the Indian government in 2011. The company got regulatory approvals for the fingerprint scanner and Iris capturing device named I-Scan in 2011. The system has been developed in such a way that the Auto Capture feature has an ability to quickly capture high-quality and vibrant images without operator involvement.
Even though there are security fears about the biometric data collected via Aadhaar program, the UIDAI has repeatedly denied all the allegations. We have to believe in our elected Government and since Nilekani was in charge of the project, the officials would be completely checked the system in 2011. Moreover, the present Government also invested heavily to secure the confidential information collected via the biometric system.
Going forward, the biometric system will be useful in real-world scenario since Government is planning to introduce Aadhaar Pay, which helps you to pay for transactions for various services including shopping.
To recall, Nandan Nilekani, who was with Infosys was asked to manage the affairs of the Aadhaar and the software related activities. The Government also formed UIDAI to monitor the issue of Aadhaar cards all over the country. He resigned from the post after the NDA-led Government took charge in 2014. He is currently serving as Chairman of Infosys.
