Aadhaar
Definition
India's national biometric identity programme, administered by UIDAI. Links a 12-digit UID to 10 fingerprints, iris scans, and a facial photograph for approximately 1.3 billion enrolled residents.
- Country
- India
- Administered by
- UIDAI
- ID format
- 12-digit unique identity number
- Biometrics captured
- 10 fingerprints, iris scans, facial photo
Common questions
How does Aadhaar's scale compare to biometric databases used in high-profile Western cases?+
Aadhaar covers roughly 1.3 billion enrolled residents, far larger than any single database used in cases like familial DNA searches or facial-recognition matching abroad, which is why it is often cited when discussing the scale biometric systems can reach.
What privacy concerns does a database this size raise?+
A single, large, centralised store of biometric identifiers raises risks around data breach, unauthorised linkage across services, and surveillance, which is why its use is governed by a dedicated legal regime, the Aadhaar Act.
Related terms
- BIPA
- Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (740 ILCS 14, 2008). Requires informed written consent before collecting biometric identifiers and prohibits their sale. The...
- Clearview AI
- New York company that built a face-recognition database of approximately 30 billion images scraped from public websites without consent; subject to BIPA...
- GDPR Article 9
- The EU General Data Protection Regulation provision classifying biometric data used for unique identification as a special category requiring explicit consent or...
- GEDmatch
- A consumer genealogy database founded in 2010, used in the Golden State Killer investigation. Changed from opt-out to opt-in for law-enforcement access...
- Investigative Genealogy
- A technique that searches consumer ancestry DNA databases using crime-scene SNP profiles to identify candidate relatives of an unknown contributor, then uses...
- Liveness Detection
- A biometric system component that distinguishes a live biological sample from an artefact-based spoof. Methods include blood-flow detection, ridge flexibility measurement, and...
- NAFRS
- National Automated Facial Recognition System; India's NCRB-administered national facial recognition platform for law enforcement, progressively deployed from 2020 onward.
- NIST FRVT
- The National Institute of Standards and Technology Face Recognition Vendor Testing programme, the primary independent benchmark for facial recognition algorithms, publishing ongoing...
- Presentation Attack (Biometric)
- An attempt to deceive a biometric capture device using an artefact (silicone overlay, printed photograph, 3D mask) rather than a genuine biometric...