'UIDAI did not accuse Google of trying to fail Aadhaar'

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Wednesday refuted media reports that its counsel Rakesh Dwivedi accused Google of trying to fail Aadhaar while presenting arguments in the Supreme Court.

"It is clarified that the media reports which were published today quoting UIDAI's Counsel Shri Rakesh Dwivedi's argument yesterday in the Supreme Court that Google is trying to fail Aadhaar, are not correct. Shri Rakesh Dwivedi, Senior Advocate had submitted that as far as Google, Facebook and Twitter are concerned, they cannot be compared with Aadhaar due to the nature of information being different and also due to difference in the nature of algorithms being used," an official release from the UIDAI stated.

The statutory authority further said that "only a certain section of people are trying to fail Aadhaar by creating imaginary fear that such data analytics and learning tools used in the above companies might be used by UIDAI in future, which is completely unfounded."

The statement clarified that Aadhaar only matched biometrics, while the other global companies used learning tools for analysis of data, which created knowledge. It added, "UIDAI is prohibited under the law to do any such analysis and therefore cannot result in surveillance of any kind."

"Further, he (Advocate Dwivedi) said UIDAI doesn't permit any Requesting Entity (RE) to collect and analyse Aadhaar data and use the same for any commercial uses," the statement read.

Earlier in the day, it was reported that during the hearing of petitions in connection with the validity of Aadhaar, the UIDAI's counsel told a CJI-headed bench that Google and Smart card lobby are trying to fail Aadhaar because its success would put smart cards out of business.