Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 27-09-2018
A journalist at the Indian Express has told Radio Islam the ruling by India’s top court to uphold the constitutional validity of a controversial national identity number (Aadhaar) raises issues with privacy and surveillance of the country’s citizens.
The top court was examining the constitutional validity of Aadhaar, whether or not citizens can be forced to enrol, and whether the government can make it mandatory to connect these IDs to bank accounts and mobile phones.
The world’s largest biometric database is named Aadhaar after a Hindi word for ‘foundation’.
Krishn Kaushik says while the ID number was originally created as a tool to help welfare services reach poorer citizens, it has deviated from its objective with many institutions now asking for an Aadhaar bank account.
“Essentially they all started linking their Aadhaar number to defence services. The fear was that this one unique identity when linked to multiple services could a 360 degree profile of every person which can lead to profiling, which raises issues with privacy and creates issues of surveillance.”
The top court barred private companies from accessing the data and also directed that schools, banks and telecom companies cannot make Aadhaar mandatory for availing their services.
Listen to the interview with Krishn Kaushik
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