With the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica row finding mentions during a Aadhaar hearing in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, 17 April, media reports claimed that Google and smart card lobbies were charged with not wanting Aadhaar to succeed lest they go out of business.
News agency PTI had reported that senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and the Gujarat government had said, "Lobbies favouring smart cards do not want this scheme to succeed as they are opposed to Aadhaar.”
The PTI report added that Dwivedi claimed there have been efforts from many quarters to ensure that this scheme, which is more secure and works offline, does not work.
Following more reports, the UIDAI on Wednesday, 18 April issued a clarification on Twitter tagging the media houses which published the article.
Calling out the reports as incorrect, UIDAI said, “Shri 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 the difference in the nature of algorithms being used.”
The Aadhaar-issuing body said while Aadhaar uses data to match biometrics, the other global companies use learning tools for analysis of data.
“Further, UIDAI is prohibited under the law to do any such analysis and therefore cannot result in surveillance of any kind,” UIDAI said.
On Cambride Analytica, Hitler’s Number Identity
A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, hearing a clutch of petitions challenging Aadhaar and enabling 2016 law, referred to the Cambridge Analytica controversy on Tuesday, said threats of probable data misuse are not "imaginary apprehensions" and, in the absence of robust data protection law, the issue of misuse of information becomes relevant.
"The real apprehension is that elections are swayed using data analytics. These problems are symptomatic of the world we live in," the bench, also comprising Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, said.
Please do not bring Cambridge Analytica into this. The UIDAI simply does not have the learning algorithms like Facebook, Google to analyse details of users.Rakesh Dwivedi
Dwivedi also dealt with the persistent allegation that the people were being given a number identity as was done by dictator Adolf Hitler in Germany.
"Hitler counted citizens to identify Jews, Christians etc. Here, we do not seek details like caste, creed and religion from the citizens," he said, adding that the history of numbers began in India and "numbers are beautiful and fascinating".
He also urged the bench not to give in to the "hyper phobia" against the Aadhaar created by the petitioners opposed to the "inclusive scheme" of the government based on a law and the proper infrastructure.
(With PTI inputs)
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