India’s biometric unique identity number has been at the receiving end of criticism ever since its adoption began. There have been a number of privacy and security concerns around the usage of this 12-digit identity number. There were a number of data leaks where the Aadhaar details of people were being exposed and Aadhaar data and Aadhaar cards were even being sold.
However, despite this, the Supreme Court, in September 2018, upheld the validity of Aadhaar on the basis that sufficient security measures can be taken to protect data and that it is difficult to actually launch surveillance on citizens based on Aadhaar.
Following this judgement, most banks, services started accepting Aadhaar again as identity proof. However, one important point in this regulation also restricted sharing, circulating or publishing of Aadhaar number.
It stated, “No entity, including a requesting entity, which is in possession of the Aadhaar number of an Aadhaar number holder, shall make public any database or record containing the Aadhaar numbers of individuals, unless the Aadhaar numbers have been redacted or blacked out through appropriate means, both in print and electronic form.”
It further states, “No entity, including a requesting entity, shall retain Aadhaar numbers or any document or database containing Aadhaar numbers for longer than is necessary for the purpose specified to the Aadhaar number holder at the time of obtaining consent.”
Following the same, many regulators including RBI, IRDAI and SEBI have given circulars to redact or black out the first 8 digits of the Aadhaar Number before storing the same in any form.
What this means is that when companies, institutions, organisations and government departments take an individual’s Aadhaar number for any service, they cannot be stored in plain format and must be redacted or masked.
One startup that has been closely watching this development is digital identity services provider Syntizen, which offered various services based on Aadhaar. Founded in 2014 by Siddharth Kukatlapalli, Vamsi Kotte and Dinesh Desu and backed by MasterCard and ACPL, it primarily works on the Aadhaar ecosystem and has developed technology-driven solutions for both state governments and private companies.
When the Supreme Court pronounced this verdict, eventually reiterated by UIDAI, Ministry of Finance, RBI and IRDAI, Hyderabad-based Syntizen saw a massive business opportunity here, in helping companies become compliant to this regulation.
It developed a machine learning powered Aadhaar Masking tool, which can help organisations mask the Aadhaar number in various scenarios.
Siddharth says they noticed that companies have taken some immediate steps where they were attempting to physically mask the Aadhaar number from all the new data coming in, some were attempting to mask scanned copies, but weren’t able to successfully do so.
Siddharth claims the tool that they developed, called Edo, can mask Aadhaar numbers collected from people in any format and any quality.
How it works
Take a bank for example. Edo is offered to the bank as a software solution and is integrated into the bank’s system. Whenever the bank receives a customer’s Aadhaar details, this software will scan the given document and ensure that the first 8 digits of the 12-digit Aadhaar number are redacted, whichever format it is in.
Vamsi says that Edo is trained to identify which 12-digit number is an Aadhaar number and which isn't. “Edo doesn’t mask any random 12-digit number. We use an algorithm called Verhoeff, which is able to identify which 12-digit number is an Aadhaar number and masks only that.”
Edo can mask a company or organisation’s existing data and the new data that comes in as well.
“Edo masks the legacy data by scanning the entire hard-disk or a particular location in any server/computer/laptop, identifies potential Aadhaar Numbers, masks the Aadhaar Numbers and replaces the masked files with the old ones ensuring compliance. And for new data, Edo provides a Camera SDK which allows any Android/iOS Application to mask the Aadhaar Number at the time of capture itself,” Siddharth says.
Edo, they claim, can recognise Aadhaar numbers on images (jpeg /png), excel sheets, pdf documents, databases, hand-written Aadhaar numbers, etc., irrespective of the quality of the image.
Vamsi says that being powered by machine learning, the system is learning every day and is increasing its accuracy on a daily basis.
Syntizen is offering the tool as a software solution and charges clients for every transaction.
Syntizen says that Edo doesn’t capture or store any data, and any data transferred through its system, is done in an encrypted format, ensuring the security of the Aadhaar number.
Ever since it officially launched Edo, Syntizen says that it has seen immense interest among corporates and even state governments to deploy their tool. Within a month since launch, Edo onboarded eight B2B entities in the BFSI sector and is currently in discussions with about 70 more players in just the BFSI sector, including some massive banking groups.
Siddharth says that companies are only realising now the importance of masking Aadhaar numbers to be compliant with the Supreme Court regulations, especially after IRDAI, RBI and the Ministry of Finance too, issued notifications reiterating the same.
“The first question I usually ask any prospective client is, ‘here is the regulation, are you compliant?’ And I immediately have their attention and interest. Moreover, being a first mover in a niche area such as this also helps,” he adds.
This Hyderabad-based startup is currently in the process of onboarding as many clients as possible and is aggressively marketing Edo.
“We are soon looking to launch "Aadhaar Masking for Mailbox" which can read a mailbox (mainly Inbox and Sent folders), identify Aadhaar numbers in the body of the e-mail and attachments and mask them to ensure highest level of compliance,” Siddharth adds.