There are issues of data-matching, errors in authentication, and shortfall in archiving, the CAG has said in its 108-page audit report on the functioning of the UIDAI. The country’s top auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, has pulled up the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for “deficient data management. There is a report, how the Pakistan terrorists misuse Aadhaar cards and the J&K Police has requested UIDAI to strengthen safety features.

As of October 31, 2021, UIDAI had issued 131.68 crore Aadhaar numbers. The CAG has said the data of Aadhaar card holders have not been matched with their Aadhaar numbers even after 10 years in some cases. It has also criticised the absence of a system to analyse the factors leading to authentication errors, and said that even though UIDAI was maintaining one of the largest biometric databases in the world, it did not have a data archiving policy, which is considered “a vital storage management best practice”. UIDAI provided Authentication services to banks, mobile operators and other agencies free of charge till March 2019, contrary to the provisions of their own Regulations, depriving revenue to the Government,” the CAG says. The CAG has highlighted that UIDAI has not ensured that the applications or devices used by agencies or companies for authentication were not capable of storing the personal information of the residents, which put the privacy of residents at risk. The Authority had not ensured security and safety of data in Aadhaar vaults. They had not independently conducted any verification of compliance to the process involved, the CAG said in its report.

CAG Flags Concerns on Aadhaar Data Collection and Management. However, UIDAI’s next step is much awaited. Despite UIDAI maintaining one of the largest biometric databases in the world, it did not have a data archiving policy. Interestingly, this is not the first time that Aadhaar is facing such criticism reg.