Thread by @gautambhatia88

Aadhaar Day 23. In Court for the last one hour of the CEU UIDAI's presentation.

CEO UIDAI is A. B. Pandey (ABP).

Sikri J asks for a note on Virtual IDs. Chandrachud J asks for a note showing that it is impossible for databases to be linked. ABP says he will provide the note.

ABP talks about virtual IDs. One Aadhaar holder will have one active VID. An Aadhaar holder can generate a VID at any time, and authentication services must accept it. VID is a random sixteen digit number.

ABP talks about tokens. Different AUA's will have different tokens for the same customer.

ABP says that through tokens, you can't combine databases, because they will be different, and you can't reverse engineer the Aadhaar number from the token. He says it is fully encrypted.

ABP comes to the distinction between Aadhaar and smart cards.

ABP says that not all smart cards are offline. They are in addition to centralised authentication.

ABP says that they need a central database to ensure deduplication. He says that you can't deduplicate with smart cards. He says that for uniqueness, you need one authorising +

+ agency.

ABP says that possibility of surveillance with Aadhaar is not there, because they don't keep any data that can be misused.

ABP says that the possibility of aggregation is there even with smart cards. He says that with offline smart cards, it will be very difficult to block in cases of loss or compromise of the card.

ABP says that in Singapore (which Justice Sikri had asked about), there is a smart card with online authentication to enhance security, and not as a replacement.

Sikri J says that in Singapore, it is mandated to have the smart card, but the information remains with the person.

ABP says that even they have authentication records. He says that Singapore is also planning to move to biometrics.

ABP says that having too much information on the smart card is risky. It's frozen in time. If a new technology develops, you will have to be replace all cards.

ABP says that UIDAI can respond to changing circumstances, but you can't do that for smart cards. He says that for example, UIDAI now requires encryption on the device, so you can't store biometrics.

Chandrachud J asks when the UIDAI began doing that.

ABP: This happened in January and February last year, after working on it for many years, and registered devices were made mandatory from June.

ABP repeats that smart cards can't work because if technology changes, you have to change all the cards.

ABP says that financial inclusion in India could not take place because people could not use debit cards, but they can use thumb-prints, especially for small transactions.

ABP says that Singapore now wants to follow the example of Estonia and India.

CJI says that ABP's submission is that the information is so encrypted that even UIDAI can't access it. ABP says that they have the key but not the information. CJI says "that's the same thing."

CJI asks whether it is possible for UIDAI to access the information. ABP says yes.

CJI asks whether there is any gap of time between putting the thumbprint and the information being sent to the CIDR, during which the Enroller can store it.

ABP says it's not possible, because it stays within UIDAI's software.

ABP says that the moment you put it your thumb, it will get encrypted, and will take a billion years to decrypt.

ABP comes to success rates of biometric authentication.

ABP says that for government systems that success rate is 88%, for Banks it is 95%, and for Telecom it is 97%.

ABP says it is lower for government because vested interests are spreading misinformation and the media is helping them.

ABP says that they conducted a proof of concept where they visited senior citizens in their homes and found 83% success rates and 90% for iris.

ABP says that now they have developed face recognition technology which is even more accurate and will be rolled out soon.

Presentation ends.

Shyam Divan and KV Viswanathan hand twenty questions over to the bench.

AG says that the bench can decide which questions are appropriate. CJI says that's not needed. The bench is reassembling on Tuesday. ABP can submit written response on Tuesday.

KV Viswanathan requests the Court to modify the interim order refusing to extend the deadline for subsidies.

AG says that nobody has been excluded.

KVV says that government's own data shows 88% success. 12% failure is too high. He repeats the request.

CJI refuses to give an extension on the issue of mandatory Aadhaar for welfare and subsidies from 31 March.

Bench is rising half an hour early.

Too resume on Tuesday.

Cheers.