'Without Evidence Or Basis': Government Issues Strong Rebuttal To Moody's Aadhaar Criticism

Responding to Moody's claims that Aadhaar poses privacy and security risks, as well as the unreliability of its biometric technology in humid climates, the Centre on Monday (25 September) dismissed these assertions as baseless and lacking evidence.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) strongly refuted Moody's allegations that the Aadhaar system frequently denies services, particularly for manual labourers in hot and humid climates.

"A certain investor service has, without citing any evidence or basis, made sweeping assertions against Aadhaar, the most trusted digital ID in the world. Over the last decade, over a billion Indians have expressed their trust in Aadhaar by using it to authenticate themselves over 100 billion times. To ignore such an unprecedented vote of confidence in an identity system is to imply that the users do not understand what is in their own interest," the government said in a statement.

The statement also added that global bodies like the IMF and the World Bank have praised Aadhaar, and several countries have approached the UIDAI for guidance on implementing similar digital ID systems.

"While the vote of confidence of a billion-plus Indians is sufficient testimony to the value offered by Aadhaar, it is pertinent that a number of international agencies, including the IMF and World Bank, have lauded the role of Aadhaar. Several nations have also been engaged with the Authority to understand how they may deploy similar digital ID systems," the government said.

Moody's report warned of the potential security and privacy risks associated with centralised systems that have a single point of control over users' identification credentials and access to online resources.

"The report in question does not cite either primary or secondary data or research in support of the opinions presented in it. The investor service did not make any attempt to ascertain facts regarding the issues raised with regard to UIDAI. The sole reference cited in the report is in respect of the UIDAI, by referring to its website," the government's statement read.

The government pointed out that Moody's report fails to mention the contactless nature of biometric submissions, such as through face authentication and iris authentication.

"In addition, the option of mobile OTP is also available in many use cases. The report also avers that there are security and privacy vulnerabilities in a centralised Aadhaar system. The factual position in this regard has been repeatedly disclosed in response to Parliament questions, where Parliament has been categorically informed that till date no breach has been reported from the Aadhaar database," the statement said.

Workers do not need to provide biometric authentication to seed their Aadhaar numbers in the MGNREGS database, nor do they need it to receive payments under the scheme, the government insisted.