New Delhi (Sputnik) — The security measures taken by the Government of India to remove the vulnerabilities in the existing Aadhaar database — biometric details of every Indian resident — has once again become the center of debate among Indian lawmakers, many of whom believe that the spy agencies including the CIA might have access to the huge pool of personal details of Indians.
"In the past month, more than 130 million Aadhaar Cards and its databases have been leaked from the government website. In the recent past, WikiLeaks hinted that CIA allegedly accessed sensitive biometric data from the Aadhaar Card database and whether any proper investigation was carried out or not, it is not reported so far," Roy told the Parliament on Wednesday.
Sukhendu Sekhar Roy contended that the database that contains identity information and authentication records of individuals becomes problematic when it is linked to an external non-governmental database such as those of mobile phone service providers as it is difficult to monitor the security practices of such third parties.
"In such a situation we strongly feel that government should enact certain legislation to checkmate the leakage and misuse of Aadhaar card database, otherwise the privacy of the citizens of the country will be compromised. In fact, it is being compromised," Roy added.
A WikiLeaks report published in August this year claimed to "expose" that the CIA was using tools devised by US-based technology provider Cross Match Technologies for cyber spying that may have comprised Aaadhar data. The claim was dismissed by officials in India.
However, the WikiLeaks expose was construed as credible by many given the fact that Cross Match Technologies provides biometric solutions to the Unique Identification Authority of India.
