India's database with biometric details of its billion citizens ignites privacy debate

"Indians in general have yet to understand the meaning and essence of privacy," says Member of Parliament, Tathagata Satpathy. 

But on Feb. 3, privacy was the hot topic of debate among many in India, thanks to a tweet that showed random people being identified on the street via Aadhaar, India's ubiquitous database that has biometric information of more than a billion Indians.

That's how India Stack, the infrastructure built by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), welcomed OnGrid, a privately owned company that is going to tap on the world's largest biometrics system, conjuring images of Minority Report style surveillance. Read more...