New Delhi: With the Tamil Nadu government seeking linkage of social media profiles of users with Aadhaar numbers to check anti-social and anti-national activities, cybersecurity experts have opposed the demand and argued that the move would internationalise the "sensitive data", providing access to the foreign state as well as non-state actors.
The state government told the Supreme Court on Monday that it was working with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) professors to find a solution to trace the origin of WhatsApp messages.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, Anuj Agarwal, Chairman, Center for Research on Cybercrime and Cyber Law, said, "It's unfair to seek linkage of Aadhaar with everything. Who will take the responsibility of ensuring that the Aadhaar data that will be provided to these companies will be safe and secure? These are all multinational companies implying that they will take our data across the border. It will lead to the infringement of privacy."
The cybersecurity expert further said: "The government would be able to use the data against those who want to use social media platforms to keep the government at check while maintaining anonymity."
"This will lead to a worse form of surveillance. This will undermine democracy, " he added.
Echoing his views, Pawan Duggal, an advocate specialising in the field of Cyberlaw and E-Commerce law, argued that the idea of linking Aadhaar with social media platforms is morally flawed on many grounds.
"If you will link Aadhaar related data with Facebook then one must realise that most of the social media companies are based out of India, which implies that a person's Aadhaar data will be accessible outside India. It will be available on servers operating outside India providing access to both state and non-state actors. It will directly impact the country's unity, integrity and security," said Duggal.
Calling out the government, Duggal stated, "the argument that is being put across that Aadhaar is mandatory to identify a person in case of a crime is untrue, and the reason being that a cybercriminal is not going to work linking his/her Aadhaar details."
"Right to Privacy is now a fundamental right and the government cannot snatch that away from us," he added.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a plea of Facebook Inc for the transfer of cases related to demands for linking of social media profiles of users with Aadhaar number, pending before the high courts of Madras, Bombay and Madhya Pradesh to the apex court.
The top court issued a notice to the Centre, Google, Twitter, YouTube, and others and sought their response by 13 September.
A bench of justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose said the notices to the unserved parties should be sent through e-mail.
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This has reopened the privacy debate. Especially considering the Supreme Court had ruled in its historical judgement, that Aadhaar linking wasn't mandatory, except in certain cases such as receiving government subsidies or linking to PAN card. The SC had, in fact, had ruled that mandating the linking of Aadhaar to an individual’s bank accounts and mobile numbers, respectively, to be unconstitutional.
