Social Media Accounts to be Linked to Aadhaar? Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad Responds!

The government has no proposal for linking individuals' social media accounts with their Aadhaar, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Parliament on Wednesday.

"There is no such proposal with the government for linking Aadhaar with social media accounts of individuals," Prasad said in a written reply to a question.

Prasad said Aadhaar is based on three core principles of "minimal information, optimal ignorance and federated database." Throughout its time, Aadhaar will only contain the data provided by an individual at the time of enrolment or updation.

"In its whole lifecycle, an Aadhaar database contains only the information that the resident provides at the time of enrolment or updation... The database may also have mobile and e-mail, if provided by the resident, during enrolment or updation,”

As a matter of policy and by design, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) prevents itself from collecting information that arise from the use of Aadhaar. "...the system by intent is blind to the purpose for which Aadhaar may be used at the front end by the resident. Also, the core biometrics is encrypted at the time of enrolment/updation. It is never kept unencrypted and is never shared," he added.