Why does UIDAI need to collect meta data of citizens, asks Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) why it needed to collect ‘meta data’ of personal transactions of citizens which go for Aadhaar authentication to avail services and benefits.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, hearing a clutch of petitions challenging Aadhaar and its enabling 2016 law, was responding to the submission of UIDAI that it collected only “limited technical meta data.” “Why do you (UIDAI) have to retain meta data of personal transacations of persons entered through Aadhaar authentication,” the bench, also comprising Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, asked. 

Meta data is a set of data that describes and gives information about other data. Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for UIDAI and the Gujarat government, said the petitioners, opposing the Aadhaar scheme, have completely “misunderstood the concept of meta data” and the UIDAI collected “limited technical meta data” to have control over the requesting entities (REs) which seek Aadhaar authentication for granting services and benefits. He said that on one hand, the petitioners were saying that UIDAI had no control over requesting entities, but simultaneously, they were also alleging that UIDAI will have so much control over the meta data that may lead to surveillance.

While it was important to exercise control over the REs, there was no data about the location or purpose of transaction or authentication which was being collected by UIDAI, he said. The bench then asked him “So you are not collecting meta data about the person but only about the machine,” to which Dwivedi replied in affirmative.