A Guide to Litigating Identity Systems
of individuals.84 The dissent states: “biometric data not only allows
individuals to be tracked, but it also creates the potential for the
collection of an individual’s information and its incorporation into a
comprehensive profile.”85
b) The majority opinion in the Aadhaar judgment ultimately rejects mass
surveillance concerns because of oversight by the Technology and
Architecture Review Board and Security Review Committee (government
committees established by the Aadhaar legislation) and prohibitions on
the recording of information about the nature of the transaction,
encryption, and data silos.86 However, the court does not make this
determination concerning identity schemes generally, but instead relies
on data minimisation and anonymity within the Aadhaar system.87 Data
minimisation means the collection and storage of only minimal data
necessary for effective authentication, including prohibition on the
collection of data unrelated to the purpose of the transaction.88
c) Justice Sykes of the Jamaican Supreme Court references the danger of
power afforded to the state by the linking of data across state
databases under the Jamaican identity system.89 Linking databases
together allows individuals to be tracked and provides the state with the
ability to build a comprehensive profile of an individual.90
d) Justice Batts of the Jamaican Supreme Court holds that the Jamaican
identity system implicates a danger of abuse by the state and its
84
Aadhaar Judgment, ¶ 239 of dissent.
85
Aadhaar Judgment, ¶ 239 of dissent.
86
Aadhaar Judgment, ¶ 447 at 541–544.
87
See Aadhaar Judgment, ¶ 208 at 285.
88
See Aadhaar Judgment, ¶ 191–95 at 271–274.
89
Opinion of Justice Sykes, ¶ 246.
90
Opinion of Justice Sykes, ¶ 246.
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