Some people are trying to fail Aadhaar by stoking imaginary fear: UIDAI

UIDAI on Wednesday dismissed concerns that it might use Aadhaar data analysis in the future, saying a certain section of people are creating "imaginary fear" to "fail" the national ID programme.

In a statement here, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) clarified that the media reports published today quoting UIDAI's Counsel Rakesh Dwivedi's argument yesterday in the Supreme Court that Google is trying to fail Aadhaar "are not correct".

"...Rakesh Dwivedi, Senior Advocate had submitted that as far as Google, Facebook and Twitter are concerned, they cannot be compared with Aadhaar due to the nature of information being different and also due to difference in the nature of algorithms being used," the UIDAI statement added.

Drawing a distinction between itself and such companies, it said Aadhaar is only matching biometrics, while the other global companies are using learning tools for analysis of data which creates knowledge.

Moreover, UIDAI said law prohibits it from doing any such analysis and therefore there is no scope of surveillance of any kind.

UIDAI does not permit any Requesting Entity (RE) to collect and analyse Aadhaar data and use the same for any commercial uses, it said.

"It is only a certain section of people who are trying to fail Aadhaar by creating imaginary fear that such data analytics and learning tools used in the above companies might be used by UIDAI in future, which is completely unfounded," UIDAI added.