Exploring the need for a right against automated decisions in India in view of Aadhaar based biometric authentication

One of the arguments in the ongoing Aadhaar case was on the Aadhaar system as the use of a technology which resulted in the denial of constitutional right. People’s rights against automated decisions These drawbacks of technology led to the introduction of rights in certain data protection legislation, such as the EU’s GDPR, or UK’s Data Protection Act. Biometric authentication in Aadhaar as decision-making tech One of senior counsel Gopal Subramaniam’s arguments in the ongoing Aadhaar case was on the Aadhaar system as the use of a technology, which resulted in the denial of essential services, and therefore constitutional rights, as a result of the failures/errors of the algorithm. Since arguments against Aadhaar based authentication deal, first and foremost, with the very collection and use of biometrics, and on doing away with biometric authentication altogether, that the system had resulted in the set-up of a nation-wide technology, which was taking crucial decisions on whether or not a person was entitled to access certain rights, was not noticed. Biometric authentication as ‘processing’ The rights against fully automated decisions apply to any kind of processing of personal data, and the comparison of the received biometric data at the point of authentication, with the biometric data provided at the time of enrolment in Aadhaar, will definitely be a ‘ ‘processing’ ’ of personal data.