SC verdict on Aadhaar gives users control over their private data

By Bala Parthasarathy

After being in the eye of the storm almost since conception, the apex court has come down on the side of common sense and embraced modern technology, making a giant stride in terms of inclusion as well as saving time and treasure for both consumers and governments.

If we cut through all the noise and uneducated opinions floating out there, the Aadhaar judgment can broadly be summarised in the following points:

1. Aadhaar is legal & does not violate anyone’s privacy

2. It is for the public good and should be regulated by a competent authority

3. Aadhaar is a great tool for inclusion, both financial and otherwise, but should not be made mandatory. Power of choice rests with the individual.

4. Can be a part of the money bill, government can create specific regulations. The first point is a huge win, especially when coupled with the data protection law recommended by the Justice BN Srikrishna commission that the government is planning to pass.

The judges seem to have given control over a user’s private data back to her. It is important to understand that nowhere has the technical architecture of Aadhaar’s implementation been questioned or challenged. That should address the concerns that people may have had about their personal/biometric data being misused or distributed.

The second is pretty self-evident and UIDAI and a number of other competent authorities already understand and regulate Aadhaar. It’s also important to note that Aadhaar was not an adopted service, but something that was built ground-up for our country.

The third is one of the most interesting aspects of the judgment. The judges have gone so far as to say that they respect 99.7 per cent of Indian adults who already have Aadhaar and their right to voluntarily use Aadhaar to get services, if their provider wants to use it to make the service faster, cheaper and better for all parties.

They have also said that it cannot be mandatory, in other words the 0.3 per cent who don’t have Aadhaar or others (even if that’s a large section of the populace) who do not wish to provide it, cannot be forced to do so. This is brilliant in a way that Aadhaar can truly be seen as an enabler now — giving the power of choice to the Individual.

The fourth is also important as there are a number of useful or important regulations/directives that need to be issued, such as around the voluntary use of Aadhaar by the private industry, in order to do authorisation for various services such as financial, telecom or utilities.

Now fast forward to, say, three years from now and imagine what the future can become. People will be able to seamlessly link and use their unique identity number to control what level of services they want to buy or access. They will be able to get rid of piles of paper in their homes and offices and multiple self-attested photocopies of different ID proofs.

They will be able to use their smartphone as a wallet or as a digital bank and will not need to deal with the current hassles of banking queues. At the same time, they will not be forced to go down a certain path of data sharing. People will have control and they will be in a position to make a choice.

(The writer is CEO and cofounder of MoneyTap)