The base of personal data of 1 billion people costs $8

History

2018: Sale of access to base for $8

On January 4, 2018 in India investigation after the message that access to base of identification data more than one billion citizens was sold for only $8 on social networks began. The The Tribune newspaper reported that it could purchase data for an input in Aadhaar base that allowed to obtain such information as names, phone numbers and home addresses of a huge number of people. It is said in the statement that data were purchased for 500 rupees ($7.89) via WhatsApp.

In network it is possible to purchase personal information of almost each Hindu

The Indian Management on individual identification (UIDAI) which services the world's largest system of biometric ID cards, stated that it is about unauthorized access to information therefore the application for the persons responsible for sale of data was submitted to police though it was not succeeded to identify violators.

Also it is said in the statement that the basic biometric data are reliably protected, and basic personal information cannot be used illegally without biometric data. Thus, it is possible to exclude financial fraud as access to bank accounts requires the additional identification including samples of fingerprints and an iris of the eye of an eye.

In 2018 the Supreme Court of India will carry out listenings concerning whether it is possible according to an initiative of administration of the prime minister Narendra Modi (Narendra Modi) to integrate Aadhaar base into private and public services, having made Aadhaar obligatory and tied to bank accounts, perhaps, having violated the rights is private lives of people. In December, 2017 to telecom company Bharti Airtel and its Airtel Payments Bank prohibited to use data of base Aadhaar for verification of the identity of clients as the base was illegally used for opening of accounts in a payment platform.^[1]

2017: The authorities of India permitted to use biometric data of 1.2 billion citizens for commercial purposes

In February, 2017 it became known of use of base of personal biometric data of Indians by business companies. They began to start projects in the field of medicine, IT, finance, etc.

By the beginning of 2017 the Indian authorities collected digital identification data (fingerprints and pictures of irises of the eye of an eye) of nearly all 1.2 billion citizens of the country, being going to simplify thereby procedures of use of electronic signatures and the state documents for the working purposes, financial transactions and receiving state services.

Biometric data of almost all population of India are entered in uniform base

However possibilities of Aadhaar appeared outside state projects. The government opened access to personal data to the large companies and startups, and those began to use information for commercial purposes, the The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) newspaper tells.

The business incubator of Edugild which is based in the city of Pune gives support to three small IT firms which use the scan samples of irises of the eye of eyes of the population for increase in attendance of educational institutions and fraud prevention during the examinations (delivery by their other people on behalf of examined).

Alixor Venture, other Indian business incubator, cooperates with a number of application developers who on the basis of the Aadhaar database allow people to provide their medical data to any medical institutions, to take out an insurance policy and to open mutual investment funds by means of smartphones.

The TrustID program started by the former banker of Goldman Sachs helps employers to check applicants for work for existence of criminal records, to browse information on the ended educational institutions, etc.

WSJ notes that many Indians support the initiative with creation of the national database of identity certificates, hoping that it will allow to liquidate small corruption and to reduce discontent in interaction with state bodies and the companies.^[2]

2010: Start of the program of an electronic population census

On September 29, 2010 in India the national program of an electronic population census started. Within the program to each of 1.2 billion residents of the state it is going to issue the identification number. Each inhabitant will be obliged to undergo the procedure of removal of fingerprints and scanning of an iris of the eye of an eye. Also he will have to report to what ethnic group it belongs what religion practises also other information which can demand the agency (for example: address, mobile phone number, etc.). All these data together with unique 12-unit number will be written in the database^[3]

By the end of 2010 of the power are going to bring in base the first 30 million people, by the end of March, 2011 - 100 million people, and within the first 4 years - 600 million people. Within 5 years for the program it is going to spend $250 billion, besides that engineers participate in the project on a voluntary basis. By this moment them about twenty were gathered, they work in Bangalore.

Program tasks

Many experts called this project the most difficult in the field of national identification, and both from technical, and from the geographical point of view. Similar projects exist also in other countries, however the Indian option which received the name Aadhaar ("basis" in translation from Hindi) is the most ambitious in connection with the scale. In order that to implement it, specialists from Google, Yahoo, Intel, Oracle and other companies and also one of founders of the project for exchange of photos of Snapfish, - all of the Indian origin were invited.

According to authors of the project, unique numbers are necessary for social pension funds that they could be convinced that the social help (including subsidies for food, etc.) is received by those people to whom it is necessary i.e. to exclude fraud cases. Besides, by means of identifiers of the power intend to expand possibilities of needy segments of the population, for example, having given them an opportunity to open the bank account and to receive the car driver license. "We actually furnish to people the clue to the social help", - the former chief executive of Infosys Technologies Nandan Nilekani who became a project manager said. Now he employs technical specialists for its implementation, mainly from Silicon Valley.

Criticism of the program

In spite of the fact that in lips of officials exclusively good intentions sound, human rights organizations opposed the program. They explained the solution with the fact that the state is going to collect too detailed information on the citizens, not especially worrying about what will become with this information if it flows away into strange hands. Probability of it is rather high as data will come to the central storage from the numerous remote cities and villages on the Internet. The organizations also complain about imperfection of laws on protection of digital data which do not prescribe rather serious punishment for cybercrimes.

Notes