Aadhaar just an ID, says Nandan Nilekani
Live MintInfosys co-founder and former Unique Identification Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani on Monday said Aadhaar did not qualify as a tool for surveillance and privacy and it was just an ID. ".Especially privacy is used in the market sense where a business is not too much about you and, therefore, you can commercialise it," Nilekani said during an interactive session at the National Executive Committee meeting of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries here. In this context, Nilekani said mobile phone qualified on keeping a tab on any individuals privacy because it is with people round the clock and listens to every conversation. Acknowledging the concern that if Aadhaar becomes ubiquitous, is used in multiple applications and then somebody combines them, Nilekani said the important feature of the ID system is that private firms cannot store the Aadhaar number.