Aadhaar security: WikiLeaks hints at CIA access to India's national ID card database

WikiLeaks on Friday published reports that suggested the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is using technology provider Cross Match Technologies to discreetly extract Aadhaar data.

"The OTS (Office of Technical Services), a branch within the CIA, has a biometric collection system that is provided to liaison services around the world — with the expectation for sharing of the biometric takes collected on the systems. But this 'voluntary sharing' obviously does not work or is considered insufficient by the CIA, because ExpressLane is a covert information collection tool that is used by the CIA to secretly exfiltrate data collections from such systems provided to liaison services," WikiLeaks said on its website.

WikiLeaks published documents' claimed that CIA used ExpressLane - a cyber tool devised by Cross match Technologies for online spying. 

Cross match Technologies is a US company that specialises in biometric software that also provides biometric solutions to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the statutory body for Aadhaar.

"Have CIA spies already stolen #India's national ID card database?," tweeted WikiLeaks along with an article attached.

In another tweet, they published an article that says "Aadhaar in the hand of spies". 

Have CIA spies already stolen #India's national ID card database? #aadhaar #biometric https://t.co/zqJmkaoiw8 #modi

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 25, 2017

See also "#Aadhaar in the hand of spies" https://t.co/J0sBghQ6EJ

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 25, 2017

However, the official sources in India have denied any such claims, say media reports. 

Earlier, defending its decision to make Aadhaar a necessary document for availing benefits of government schemes, the Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad informed the Supreme Court that the government has formed a high-level committee for Aadhaar data protection. However, the Supreme Court refused to pass any interim order against the Central government notification for making Aadhaar mandatory. The Supreme Court was hearing a petition that said making Aadhaar compulsory would violate the right to privacy of an individual. 

In the recent development, putting an end to all the debates whether privacy of an individual is a fundamental right, the apex court on August 24  pronounced that individual privacy is a fundamental right protected by the Constitution.