UIDAI Aadhaar Biometric Repository
Definition
The UIDAI's central biometric store containing ten-print and iris records for over 1.37 billion enrolled individuals under the Aadhaar Act 2016. Operates a 1:1 authentication function; does not expose 1:N identification search. Accessible to law enforcement through court order under Aadhaar Act section 33.
- Custodian
- UIDAI
- Records held
- Ten-print and iris, 1.37+ billion enrollees
- Legal basis
- Aadhaar Act 2016
- Search function
- 1:1 authentication only, no 1:N identification
- Law enforcement access
- Court order under Aadhaar Act section 33
Common questions
Why can't investigators use the Aadhaar repository the way they would use AFIS to identify an unknown latent print?+
The repository is built to confirm a claimed identity against a submitted biometric (1:1 authentication), not to search the whole database for a match to an unknown print (1:N identification), so it cannot function as an AFIS-style identification tool even with legal access.
What must law enforcement show to obtain Aadhaar biometric data under section 33?+
Section 33 of the Aadhaar Act sets conditions, generally requiring a court order or, in narrower circumstances, authorisation at a specified senior level, reflecting the Act's privacy safeguards around a civil identity database rather than a criminal one.
Related terms
- AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System)
- An automated system that compares a fingerprint query (typically a latent print from a crime scene) against a reference database to identify...
- Bozorth3
- The NIST open-source fingerprint minutiae matching algorithm distributed as part of the NIST NBIS toolkit. Rotation- and translation-invariant. Serves as the reference...
- Cold-Case Hit
- An AFIS identification event where a crime scene latent previously returned as no identification (NI) matches against a ten-print record enrolled into...
- FBI NGI (Next Generation Identification)
- The FBI's biometric repository system, fully operational from 2015, replacing IAFIS. Contains over 175 million ten-print records, 30 million palmprint records, and...
- I-24/7
- Interpol's secure global police communications network connecting 196 member countries. Used by national fingerprint bureaus to submit searches against and receive candidates...
- IDENT1
- The UK national fingerprint database operated by the Home Office and managed by Idemia. Holds approximately 10 million ten-print records and a...
- NAFIS (National Automated Fingerprint Identification System, India)
- The NCRB-operated national fingerprint database deployed from 2022, integrating criminal fingerprint records across all 28 state FSLs, 5 CFSLs, and state police...
- NIST ELFT-EFS (2012)
- The NIST Evaluation of Latent Fingerprint Technologies: Extended Feature Sets, a large-scale evaluation of both automated AFIS algorithms and human examiner performance....
- Similarity Score
- The numerical output of an AFIS matching algorithm indicating the degree of minutiae correspondence between a query and a candidate. Higher scores...