This has been getting a lot of attention in the Twitterverse and elsewhere.
Scores of people the Aadhaar project will help the most do not have the sharp, curving lines on their fingers as depicted in its logo. Millions of Indians working in agriculture, construction workers and other manual labourers have worn-out fingers due to a lifetime of hard labour, resulting in what is euphemistically referred to in technical literature as ‘low-quality’ fingerprints. This is precisely the demographic that UID aims to help — those that are outside government records and welfare schemes.The Indian UID project has captured the public's attention. People are becoming aware of the promises and challenges of large scale biometric identity management deployments. This is a good thing.
While the UIDAI uses two other metrics — an iris scan and a photograph — in issuing the unique identity number, fingerprinting will be the metric used in authentication. This means a passport applicant with worn-out fingers may present his newly-issued UID number as a conclusive proof of identity, but could find the application rejected. The authentication process using a fingerprint scanner could classify the applicant’s worn-out fingers as a so-called ‘false negative’.
On the technical front, "worn out" fingerprints don't present an insurmountable challenge to the Indian project. An ID management system that increases efficiency in the vast majority of transactions while presenting no new obstacles in the rare cases is a valuable system.
The proper way to evaluate a proposed identity management system is to compare the system currently in use to the expected performance of the envisioned system while balancing the costs of the new system against the improvements upon the old way of doing things. Too often, those skeptical about biometric ID management deployments start from the position that anything less than automated perfection is failure*. This attitude can impede the adoption of cost-saving improvements in critical organizational processes.
In adopting a multi-modal approach -- the UIDAI seems to have allowed for the use of iris for backup authentication as well as providing a photograph and an ID number -- it does not appear that India is creating an ID management system that will be unable to serve those with "worn out" fingerprints or those with disabilities that would prevent them from using a fingerprint based system.
*Similar thoughts here.
