सविस्तर माहितीसाठी इकॉनॉमिक टाइम्स मधील बातमी वाचावी.

For a search giant that answers online queries instantly, Google raises deeper questions in the real world. What if internet users knew in 2005 that Google would be reading all our content on Gmail? Would we have sacrificed the convenience of free Gmail to protect our privacy?

Today, the company knows even more about our online habits, but the choice to use Google or not rests with the user. It’s an interesting parallel to Aadhaar at a time when the government is making the unique identification number mandatory across a spate of services. The most controversial step in late March was a call to link the Aadhaar number with permanent account number (PAN), which identifies Indian nationals who pay income tax. Everyone has to work for a living.

In effect, Aadhaar—unlike Google or any digital service—is compulsory, when India doesn’t even have a data protection and privacy law. On 19 May, according to a news agency PTI report, senior counsel Shyam Divan told the Supreme Court (SC) bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Navin Sinha that Aadhaar “cannot be made compulsory and they cannot coerce people to give their biometrics.” On the other side, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi argued that making it mandatory is vital to eliminate fake and fraudulent accounts that get subsidies.

via AADHAAR: Why government’s push to make Aadhaar mandatory could erode public faith in Aadhaar-enabled payments – The Economic Times