Consider the following statements:Aadhaar metadata cannot be stored for more than three months.State

Question

Consider the following statements:Aadhaar metadata cannot be stored for more than three months.State cannot enter into any contract with private corporations for sharing of Aadhaar data.Aadhaar is mandatory for obtaining insurance products.Aadhaar is mandatory for getting benefits funded out of the Consolidated Fund of India.Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Accepted Answer

Metadata or meta base is a set of data that describes and gives information about other data. Authentication records are not to be kept beyond a period of six months, as stipulated in Regulation 27(1) of the Authentication Regulations. As per SC Judgement, retaining authentication data of citizens who have enrolled for Aadhaar beyond six months was impermissible. Hence statement 1 is not correct.Supreme Court has struck down the Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act which allowed sharing of data with private entities. The judgement means that private bodies like telecom companies, e-commerce firms cannot ask for biometric and other data from consumers for their services. Hence statement 2 is correct.Insurance regulator IRDAI has advised insurers not to mandatorily seek Aadhaar and PAN/Form 60 from customers, existing or new, for KYC (Know Your Customer) purpose. It, however, allowed insurers to accept Aadhaar card as one of the documents for establishing identity, address of the customer subject to certain conditions that presumably are being stipulated to guard against misuse of the information. The insurers can accept Aadhaar as one of the documents for KYC, only when the same is offered voluntarily by the proposer/policy-holder. Hence statement 3 is not correct.As per section 7 of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, any individual who is desirous of availing any subsidy, benefit or service for which the expenditure is incurred from the Consolidated Fund of India, shall require to furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number or undergo Aadhaar based authentication. In case the individual does not have Aadhaar, he/she shall make an application for enrolment and the individual shall be offered alternate and viable means of identification for delivery of the subsidy, benefit or service. Hence statement 4 is correct.