Surabhi Agarwal reports that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has taken steps to prevent a future breach like the one that caused a media firestorm when a reporter was able to easily purchase access to Aadhaar credentials. UIDAI has now restricted the access of those who were previously able to access information more easily.
“All the privileges given to designated officers for access have been immediately withdrawn,” said a top government official who didn’t want to be named. UIDAI has overhauled its system to enable access only by entering the biometrics of the person whose details were sought to be verified.
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Under the new system, access needs to be authenticated by the fingerprint of the Aadhaar holder and the data available will be restricted to that person. “It may inconvenience some people who wanted speedy access to their details, but the move is expected to prevent future breaches,” the official said.
Read more at The Economic Times.
I’m not sure why the headline writer put “breach” in quotation marks. If the reporter was able to acquire personal information that should not have been accessible, then it was a breach, even if biometric data was not involved.