What is Unique ID?Unique Identification is a string assigned to an entity that identifies the entity uniquely. Every person residing in India will soon have a UID. Biometric identification system and checks would be used to ensure that each individual is assigned one and only UID and the process of generating a new UID would ensure that duplicates are not issued as valid UID numbers.
What is the utility of UID?The programme to provide UID is a way to design a 21st century system of identification in India that could be a significant improvement over the 19th and 20th century systems in use in developed countries like the U.S. and Italy.
The tradeoffs made in designing this system will have its longer impact. If a UID is designed in a good way, it can last for centuries without any change whereas suboptimal choices may dilute or even negate some of the presumed benefits that may later create problems.
Unique Identification Database Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani once said in an interview that the unique identification numbers will take into account the database of poor and the marginalised people, mostly living in the rural areas.
The numbers will, for the first time, provide an identity to those who need it the most. The project has great potential as it sets out to take within its purview the not-so-privileged residents of India.
Some salient features: Aadhaar i.e. the UID number is not mandatory. People can even choose not to have it.
It is not just restricted to the Indian citizens only but is also meant for residents of India, irrespective of their citizenship. An Aadhaar card does not establish citizenship of India as it is meant for identification.
People without proper identification documents can also apply for Aadhaar. Authorised individuals, who already have an Aadhaar, can introduce residents who don’t possess any documents to establish their identity to enable them to receive their Aadhaar. One must also remember that Aadhar is not a replacement for other identification documents such as ration card or passport.
The UIDAI will collect only biometric and demographic information about an individual and will not ask for info on caste, religion or language.
Date of Birth is optional (for people who don’t remember/know their date of birth) and approximate age will suffice.
Transgenders have been included in the options under gender and they need not classify themselves as male or female.
Residents of India have an option to link their UID number to their bank accounts.
To get an UID number, what one has to do is just visit the nearest Aadhaar enrollment camp, details of which will be published in the local media. Residents will have to carry along certain documents, mentioned in the advertisement. There the residents will be photographed and have their fingerprints and iris scanned,and within 20-30 days the Aadhaar numbers will be issued.
The draft National Identification Authority of India bill has provisions against impersonation, providing false information and for protection of personal information collected by the UIDAI. Violations can attract penalties in the form of fines of up to Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million) and imprisonment extending up to a life term.
Privacy issues
A great deal has been written about the privacy implications of national ID cards in various countries. And UID too has raised similar concerns.
However, it must be remembered that the UID programme does not issue a smartcard or any type of card or mandate any machine-readable format such as a barcode or RFID.
Mr. Nilekani had stated that the UID scheme would not affect civil liberty, and it will just be used for verifying someone’s identity. It would be a ‘yes’, ‘no’ kind of an exercise. If someone’s identity needs to be verified, only then these numbers will come in handy. It will just authenticate certain facts about an individual. It will only verify if a certain person’s claim for identity is true or not.
An example of UID’s utilityFor instance, with these numbers, a pensioner can go to a kirana store (a business partner of UIDAI), and can find out the details about the pension due to him by having his biometrics checked at the micro automated teller machine available with the storeowner.
If, for instance, Rs 300 is due to him, the kirana store owner will pay him the same amount from his drawer and have the same Rs 300 credited to his bank account.
The UIDAI had discussed with the Reserve Bank of India for preparing the roadmap for financial inclusion with help of micro-ATMs.
Process for de-duplication
Biometrics are physical markers of an individual that are unique to an individual such as fingerprints, iris patterns, face structure etc.
Once biometric information contain no ordering and hence cannot be indexed like text based information, when a resident applies for a UID with his/her fingerprints, iris and photo of face, these biometrics have to be compared against the entire UID database (existing residents with UIDs) to ensure that this new applicant is indeed unique and has not already been allotted a UID (even under a different name, address, etc).
Can UIDs be deactivated?One simple way to deal with that is to flag UID record as inactive once the death is confirmed.
In a country of a billion people, updating UID records based on the death register is not easy since a large number of death cases are not reported and moreover the registration of births and deaths is maintained at local distributed levels across the country making it difficult to update them at a central UID system.
One way to ensure that UIDs are not misused by others after a person’s death is to inactivate the UID if it has not been used in a limited span of time, say 10 years (or the time span may also change).
Using the lack of activity as being an indicator of being deceased is also not without its pitfalls. In the case that a UID in inactivated of a person who has simply not authenticated him- self/herself in a long time, s/he can simply activate their UID by a simple re-activation procedure that involves authentication.
Can lost UID numbers be recovered?This requires a ‘identity check’ which involves capturing the resident’s biometric and comparing it against the entire UID database in order to locate the UID number of the resident — this is the same 1:N check that is undertaken during initial UID enrolment.
Since this is an expensive compute intensive operation, the UID system needs to discourage repeated and frivolous applications of lost UID number — perhaps through a fee for the UID recovery service.
The tradeoffs made in designing this system will have its longer impact. If a UID is designed in a good way, it can last for centuries without any change whereas suboptimal choices may dilute or even negate some of the presumed benefits that may later create problems.
Unique Identification Database Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani once said in an interview that the unique identification numbers will take into account the database of poor and the marginalised people, mostly living in the rural areas.
The numbers will, for the first time, provide an identity to those who need it the most. The project has great potential as it sets out to take within its purview the not-so-privileged residents of India.
Some salient features: Aadhaar i.e. the UID number is not mandatory. People can even choose not to have it.
It is not just restricted to the Indian citizens only but is also meant for residents of India, irrespective of their citizenship. An Aadhaar card does not establish citizenship of India as it is meant for identification.
People without proper identification documents can also apply for Aadhaar. Authorised individuals, who already have an Aadhaar, can introduce residents who don’t possess any documents to establish their identity to enable them to receive their Aadhaar. One must also remember that Aadhar is not a replacement for other identification documents such as ration card or passport.
The UIDAI will collect only biometric and demographic information about an individual and will not ask for info on caste, religion or language.
Date of Birth is optional (for people who don’t remember/know their date of birth) and approximate age will suffice.
Transgenders have been included in the options under gender and they need not classify themselves as male or female.
Residents of India have an option to link their UID number to their bank accounts.
To get an UID number, what one has to do is just visit the nearest Aadhaar enrollment camp, details of which will be published in the local media. Residents will have to carry along certain documents, mentioned in the advertisement. There the residents will be photographed and have their fingerprints and iris scanned,and within 20-30 days the Aadhaar numbers will be issued.
The draft National Identification Authority of India bill has provisions against impersonation, providing false information and for protection of personal information collected by the UIDAI. Violations can attract penalties in the form of fines of up to Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million) and imprisonment extending up to a life term.
Privacy issues
A great deal has been written about the privacy implications of national ID cards in various countries. And UID too has raised similar concerns.
However, it must be remembered that the UID programme does not issue a smartcard or any type of card or mandate any machine-readable format such as a barcode or RFID.
Mr. Nilekani had stated that the UID scheme would not affect civil liberty, and it will just be used for verifying someone’s identity. It would be a ‘yes’, ‘no’ kind of an exercise. If someone’s identity needs to be verified, only then these numbers will come in handy. It will just authenticate certain facts about an individual. It will only verify if a certain person’s claim for identity is true or not.
An example of UID’s utilityFor instance, with these numbers, a pensioner can go to a kirana store (a business partner of UIDAI), and can find out the details about the pension due to him by having his biometrics checked at the micro automated teller machine available with the storeowner.
If, for instance, Rs 300 is due to him, the kirana store owner will pay him the same amount from his drawer and have the same Rs 300 credited to his bank account.
The UIDAI had discussed with the Reserve Bank of India for preparing the roadmap for financial inclusion with help of micro-ATMs.
Process for de-duplication
Biometrics are physical markers of an individual that are unique to an individual such as fingerprints, iris patterns, face structure etc.
Once biometric information contain no ordering and hence cannot be indexed like text based information, when a resident applies for a UID with his/her fingerprints, iris and photo of face, these biometrics have to be compared against the entire UID database (existing residents with UIDs) to ensure that this new applicant is indeed unique and has not already been allotted a UID (even under a different name, address, etc).
Can UIDs be deactivated?One simple way to deal with that is to flag UID record as inactive once the death is confirmed.
In a country of a billion people, updating UID records based on the death register is not easy since a large number of death cases are not reported and moreover the registration of births and deaths is maintained at local distributed levels across the country making it difficult to update them at a central UID system.
One way to ensure that UIDs are not misused by others after a person’s death is to inactivate the UID if it has not been used in a limited span of time, say 10 years (or the time span may also change).
Using the lack of activity as being an indicator of being deceased is also not without its pitfalls. In the case that a UID in inactivated of a person who has simply not authenticated him- self/herself in a long time, s/he can simply activate their UID by a simple re-activation procedure that involves authentication.
Can lost UID numbers be recovered?This requires a ‘identity check’ which involves capturing the resident’s biometric and comparing it against the entire UID database in order to locate the UID number of the resident — this is the same 1:N check that is undertaken during initial UID enrolment.
Since this is an expensive compute intensive operation, the UID system needs to discourage repeated and frivolous applications of lost UID number — perhaps through a fee for the UID recovery service.
One should set-up a process to change some of the primary information, such as name change, change of primary residence based on the same KYR (know your resident) verification processes that was used for issuing a UID.
What are the types of identifiers? Several types of identifiers that are provided by different government and private agencies.
Like driver license, ration card, election photo identity card, Public Account Number, passport, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act job card etc.
Identifications used for financial transactions i.e. bank account, post office account numbers etc.
Also there are identifiers meant for communication such as mobile numbers, landline phone, email addresses etc.
While the above identifiers of an individual are relevant in specific sectors such as finance, health, communication etc, the UID is a pure identifier which is not tied to any particular sector or application and this abstract quality of the UID has distinct benefit in delivering cross sectoral benefits.
Challenges faced
Surprisingly, in the past, there have been several instances of unique numbering systems that had to be changed at a great cost after being in use for several years.
The two main reasons have been
1) introduction of structure within the UID format that wastes large parts of the available space of UID values.
2) unanticipated growth (and types) of objects to which UIDs are assigned, andDesigning a
Unique Identity Number for a population of more than a billion plus poses incredible management and technical challenges. One needs to carefully plan the format, namely the structure and the length of the string as well as the method of issuing so as not to run out of available numbers to assign at some future date.When a resident loses his/her UID number (and the associated UID letter) a process is needed to recover the UID number.When a person dies, eventually one would see a need to de-activate the UID associated with the person.One of the key features of the UID system is ensuring uniqueness in issuing the UID number. This means that each resident can get one and only one UID number and conversely the UID number can be used by one resident alone. The only way to ensure uniqueness with a high degree of accuracy is by the use of biometrics.This form of authentication can be embedded into various forms of services.
What are the types of identifiers? Several types of identifiers that are provided by different government and private agencies.
Like driver license, ration card, election photo identity card, Public Account Number, passport, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act job card etc.
Identifications used for financial transactions i.e. bank account, post office account numbers etc.
Also there are identifiers meant for communication such as mobile numbers, landline phone, email addresses etc.
While the above identifiers of an individual are relevant in specific sectors such as finance, health, communication etc, the UID is a pure identifier which is not tied to any particular sector or application and this abstract quality of the UID has distinct benefit in delivering cross sectoral benefits.
Challenges faced
Surprisingly, in the past, there have been several instances of unique numbering systems that had to be changed at a great cost after being in use for several years.
The two main reasons have been
1) introduction of structure within the UID format that wastes large parts of the available space of UID values.
2) unanticipated growth (and types) of objects to which UIDs are assigned, andDesigning a
Unique Identity Number for a population of more than a billion plus poses incredible management and technical challenges. One needs to carefully plan the format, namely the structure and the length of the string as well as the method of issuing so as not to run out of available numbers to assign at some future date.When a resident loses his/her UID number (and the associated UID letter) a process is needed to recover the UID number.When a person dies, eventually one would see a need to de-activate the UID associated with the person.One of the key features of the UID system is ensuring uniqueness in issuing the UID number. This means that each resident can get one and only one UID number and conversely the UID number can be used by one resident alone. The only way to ensure uniqueness with a high degree of accuracy is by the use of biometrics.This form of authentication can be embedded into various forms of services.
