The authorities initiated this legislation as a measure of national security without taking into account the consequences in terms of people’s right to privacy.
According to Tathagata Satpathy, a lawmaker from the eastern state of Odisha, the authorities intended to use this as tool for payment of subsidies, claiming they were not aware of the mass surveillance involved here. However, government officials claim to take measures to protect citizens’ privacy.
Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Bengaluru-based Centre for Internet and Society, said that Aadhaar created a central deposit of biometrics for almost every citizen than could be compromised, since the biometric records are to be shared with security governing bodies.
The Aadhaar database has around a billion people registered by their fingerprints and iris signatures and it was set up to systematize payment of benefits and dispatch fraud and wastage.
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