Centre refutes Moody's critique of Aadhaar, says Aadhaar earned the trust of over a billion Indians

The Centre responded to Moody's global credit agency, dismissing their claims of Aadhaar's privacy and security risks, as well as the unreliability of its biometric technology in humid climates, as baseless and unsupported by evidence.

In a statement, the Unique Identification Authority of India strongly refuted Moody's allegations, which claimed that Aadhaar frequently leads to service denials and raised doubts about the reliability of biometric technology in hot and humid climates, especially for manual labourers.

UIDAI expressed its disappointment, stating that Moody's report lacks any supporting evidence or factual basis. It emphasized that Aadhaar has earned the trust of over a billion Indians over the last decade, as it has been used for authentication purposes more than 100 billion times.

Furthermore, UIDAI criticized Moody's for failing to conduct proper research and for not reaching out to the Authority to clarify their concerns. The report inaccurately cited the number of Aadhaars issued, claiming 1.2 billion, whereas the UIDAI's website provides updated figures.

UIDAI also highlighted the report's omission of alternative biometric authentication methods such as face and iris recognition, as well as the use of mobile OTP in various scenarios.

Addressing the security and privacy concerns raised in Moody's report, UIDAI emphasized that no breaches have been reported from the Aadhaar database, a fact that has been consistently communicated to Parliament in response to inquiries.

The statement also noted that Aadhaar has received accolades from international organizations such as the IMF and the World Bank. Several nations have approached the UIDAI seeking guidance on the adoption of analogous digital ID systems.

What did Moody's report say?

In its recent report, Moody's expressed concerns regarding the security and privacy vulnerabilities associated with centralized identification systems Aadhaar.

Moody's said, the widely-used Aadhaar system, which relies on biometric technology for verification, has faced criticism for frequent service denials and the unreliability of biometrics in humid conditions.

Moody's acknowledged Aadhaar as the world's largest digital ID program but also highlighted privacy and security issues. The rating agency suggested that decentralized ID (DID) systems, such as blockchain-based digital wallets, offer greater control over private data and can reduce the risk of data breaches.

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