More the information secured and protected, more the privacy is maintained.

                                                                         ~Uttakarsh Mattikop

Introduction:

In today’s digital world, it is the information which is considered as the biggest threat and dangerous for everybody from an individual to a country. Therefore there is a need for keeping the information safe and secured. The information may be anything from a nuclear launch codes to an individual’s personal details.

In this article we will be dealing with the Aadhar and the challenge for data protection which is today a burning issue in India.

Origin and Objectives of Aadhar:

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was established in the year 2009. It is a statutory body responsible for the enrollment and issue of Aadhar Card.

The main objective of this project is to maintain centralized database storage of information of every individual which includes biometrics (iris scan and fingerprint scan) and permanent address. The UIDAI also issues a unique 12 digit unique identity number called Aadhar to the citizens.

Need for Aadhar:

There is always a question in our brains: “Why do we need Aadhar when we already have many identities like passport, voter-id, driver’s license etc.?” Although we do have identities but the major problem with these identities is that not every individual has access to these identities i.e. voter-id and driver’s license is not available for people below 18 years of age and passport is not affordable for poor people. Contrary to this Aadhar is available for all from a child to a senior citizen and is affordable for all as it is free of cost.

Further, with the help of such an identity, it will be easy for the government to provide economic, health, education many other benefits to the needy people in the country.

Major issues involved in Aadhar:

Although there is an effort in systematic centralized store of information, but at the cyber front, there are major issues that the government must reiterate on to uphold the privacy of every citizens of the country.

Some of these are:

1. Which court will look into the matters related to Aadhar?
2. Lack of cyber experts to investigate into the matters related to Aadhar.

Solution for above two issues:

1. There is a need for separate Aadhar Tribunal to look into the matters related to Aadhar. As the protection of data is more of a technical concern rather than of legal concern, there is a need for technical experts in the cyber field to decide the cases related to Aadhar.
2. Lack of expertise in the cyber field, ordinarily the police or any other investigation department such as CID; CBI etc will have difficulties in investigating the matters related to Aadhar. Therefore there is a need for a separate Aadhar Investigation Team which is specialized in cyber field and investigate the matters related to Aadhar.

Conclusion:

 India has taken a major step of digital centralized storage of data very similar to some of the developed nations like Canada, Austria, and USA etc. Therefore there is a need for systematic laws to regulate and protect data from many threats. Parallelly there is a need for data protection laws so that both private and public companies have well established system of data storage and protection.