Bill Gates says #Aadhaar technology foolproof with Zero privacy issues; funds World Bank to initiate UIDAI in other nations

Washington, May 4: Aadhar does not pose any privacy issue because it is just a bio ID verification scheme. This was said by Microsoft chief Bill Gates on Thursday after being asked about the concerns about privacy issues raised by certain quarters in India.

 

Notably, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has funded the World Bank to take Aadhar technology to other countries as it is worth emulating. After being asked about privacy issues raised by certain quarters in India during a press briefing, Bill Gates said, “Aadhar does not pose any privacy issue because it is just a bio ID verification scheme and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have funded the World Bank to take this approach.”

On being asked about if India's Aadhaar technology is worth emulating by other countries, Bill Gates immediately replied saying ‘Yes’ adding that the benefits of Aadhar ID are very high. Replying to another question, the Microsoft founder said, "Yes, countries should adopt that approach because the quality of governance has a lot to do with how quickly countries are able to grow their economy and empower their people."

Bill Gates further said, "We have funded the World Bank to take this Aadhaar approach to other countries as it doesn't pose any privacy issue because it's just a bio ID verification scheme.” "The individual applications that use Aadhaar, you have to look and see what's been stored and who has access to that information. And so, application by application, you have to make sure that's well managed. In the case of the financial bank account I think it's handled very well," he added. "(It uses) Aadhar to set up the accounts so that you can both get your cell phone and get your bank account," he concluded.

BACKGROUND:

Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identity number for Indians, based on their biometric and demographic data. The data is collected by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), a statutory authority established in January 2009 by the Government of India. Infosys founder Nandan Nilekani is considered as the chief architect of Aadhaar, was consulting and helping the World Bank on the project.