Absolute privacy is a futile notion, says A-G

‘FB if it wants can pick up any message sent by one person to another’.

What harm can Aadhaar do when the right to privacy of an Indian citizen has become a futile notion in an era when Facebook can track every detail, thought and movement through its WhatsApp software application, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi asked a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

“There is no absolute privacy. It's a futile notion. Facebook, if it wants, can pick up any message sent by one person to another if it wants to snoop through WhatsApp. Our system [Aadhaar scheme] is far more secure,” said Mr. Rohatgi on behalf of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

“YouTube could pick your choice of films and songs the next time you log in. There are software applications which can pinpoint your location and estimate the time it would take to reach the destination... Where is privacy here?” Mr. Rohatgi asked.

The maiden hearing of the five-judge Bench led by Chief Justice H.L. Dattu saw the government go to great lengths to convince that Aadhaar is a “voluntary authentication device” and not a snooping device or meant to be an instrument of control of the likes used by authoritarian States to keep tabs on citizens.

“But in many schemes Aadhaar is a condition precedent... How does this and your claim that Aadhaar enrolment is voluntary go hand-in-hand?,” Justice Amitava Roy asked from the Bench.

To this, Mr. Rohatgi illustrated the case of a poor widow who has to travel 20 miles every month to her bank to draw her pension.

“If she voluntarily enrols for Aadhaar, there is a scheme that a bank employee comes with the money to her house. If she does not opt for Aadhaar, she continues to go to the bank like how she did before,” Mr. Rohatgi said.

Aadhaar widely used

He said the Aadhaar was the most widely held identity card in the country at 92 crore compared to seven crore people having a PAN card, five crore having passports and 12 to 15 crore people with ration cards.

The Constitution Bench was hearing a batch of petitions challenging an August 11 interim order by a three-judge Bench making Aadhaar optional for all government welfare schemes including PDS and LPG cooking gas distribution.