A bill is being passed in US to de-link Social Security Number from medicare ID cards. This is being pushed to avoid Medicare identity theft. Report
The decision follows the observation that medicare security breaches are resulting in loss of social security identity of citizens.
This development appears interesting in the context of India trying to push inclusion of Aadhar numbers in a number of transactions such as Gas connections, Bank accounts, etc. The risk of a gas dealer losing his records which results in Aadhar number being revealed is a risk that looms large on the Citizens of India. Once the aadhar number and details with the gas dealer is known the combined data could be used for various malicious purposes such as stealing the Bank account or Mobile number.
It is necessary for the Government to keep these risks in mind before linking Aadhar numbers with all services as a matter of routine.
During Aadhar registrations in Karnataka I have observed that by default every registrant is being asked to link his Bank account to the Aadhar registration. This is required only for BPL families where benefits are to be routed to the account. Otherwise public should be circumspect in linking their Bank accounts to the Aadhar registration.
Naavi
