Your Phone As ID: Government Wants to Link Aadhaar to Smartphone
The upcoming smartphones in India could get directly linked with Aadhaar database.
Every Indian citizen could soon be owning a phone that gets directly linked to their Aadhaar account. This grand plan has been put into the framework by UIDAI, the Aadhaar governing body. Media reports indicate that phones in the near future could be used as a device to ID people.
And for this, the government is said to be in talks with leading mobile brands like Samsung, Micromax, Microsoft and even Apple.
The reports add that the companies are fairly confident of making Aadhaar-powered phones very soon, but they’ll have to check with their global teams to see if the implementation will be a longer process than imagined.
It seems like the Indian regime wants to have Aadhaar-enabled chips embedded within the phones.
Most mobile phones these days come equipped with fingerprint scanner feature, but it remains to be seen if mobile makers are sure enough of delivering phones with iris-scanner (vital for Aadhaar) anytime soon.
If at all the Aadhaar link becomes a reality, it remains to be seen if the security parameters of Aadhaar are kept in mind. The whole point of Aadhaar storing data and vital person information is that everything gets encrypted.
Only the Smartphones
As you might have guessed it by now, the Aadhaar-link will only be possible on a smartphone. The rest of the country, still using feature phones, will have to comply with existing Aadhaar processes.
Interestingly, Samsung is already credited with making an Iris-enabled tablet in India, so it seems a phone with similar optics isn’t that far away, (read, the upcoming Galaxy Note 7). We’ll surely keep a close eye on this one and keep you updated on whether Aadhaar on a mobile becomes a reality.
(Source: Economic Times)
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