No clarity yet on what happens to Aadhaar numbers already with telcos, banks

While the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down linking of mobile phone numbers and bank accounts with Aadhaar was welcomed by most, it does not yet address a key question.

What happens to the data and Aadhaar numbers that telecom companies, banks and other private entities have already collected?

The answer to this may come in some time as the judgment, said to be about 1,000-pages long, is made public.

We have all been inundated by messages near-threatening us to link our phone numbers, bank account numbers and PAN cards with Aadhaar over the past year.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act, disallowing private companies from insisting on the 12-digit identity number.

However, it upheld the use of Aadhaar for filing income tax, raising the question of whether this can be exploited in some way by private entities as well.

Experts and legal practitioners are awaiting the full judgment to see how the issue of already-linked Aadhaar numbers will be tackled.

In the reading of his dissent, Justice DY Chandrachud, however, tackles the issue concisely.

“DYC J also strikes down Bank Linking and Telecom linking orders. Says cell phone providers must immediately delete and destroy Aadhaar data they have collected immediately,” tweeted Prasanna S, who was present at the Aadhaar hearing.

Chandrachud also spoke about the issue of foreign entities storing Aadhaar numbers: “Algorithms by foreign companies such as L1 and Accenture and control out of UIDAI is noted and not approved by DYC J. Rights of citizens and national security cannot be protected by merely a contract between UIDAI and private foreign corporations,” Prasanna tweeted.

We will for the time being, just have to wait and watch what happens to the data we have already linked to Aadhaar.