Aadhaar: A Biometric History of India's 12-Digit Revolution

by Shankkar Aiyar

The enrolment process was split in two parts. The resident could go to any registrar of choice – the processes were uniform – as per his/her convenience. The operator would collect the information from residents; take biometric impressions of ten fingers and scans of both the eyes. The data would be collected on software provided by UIDAI. The software would be coded for immediate encryption of all data, with a digital signature so no outsider could decrypt it – neither the operator, nor the enrolling agency, not even the registrar. The second phase dealt with the back-end. The data packet, which is around 3 MB, is transmitted to the Central Identities Data Repository. The systems, software and architecture for CIDR were designed in-house and the operations outsourced. The back-end of the server uses multiple automatic biometric identification systems (ABIS) to authenticate whether the resident is unique – that he or she has never been issued a number till then.