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Comment by oopsman88 | Hacker News Reader

Just because India (India, of all places) can't do things right doesn't mean that a universal ID is a bad idea. Most countries in the world have a universal ID that hasn't been hacked to oblivion.

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It’s not the ID that’s the problem, but having one single ID linked to everything else.

Look at how almost all adults in the U.S. have been made vulnerable to identity theft because of the Equifax breach and the leak of SSN and related information. These are irreversible damages.

The problem is not having one single ID linked to everything, which most countries do. The problem is pretending that ID is a secret, which it is not. It's stupid to treat SSNs as passwords.

Aadhar is meant to be private but it cannot be used for anything without MFA (unlike SSN). In that sense, Aadhar is not really treated as a password like SSN is.

What kind of private it is when DHL holds your international incoming document parcel hostage asking for Aadhar copy for Customs Clearance; then delivery boy insisting on Aadhar photo in his phone for making sure to deliver to right person.

Aadhar is not meant to be private. It should not be treated a s a private key when you need to give a copy of your card everywhere like your bank, getting a new cell phone sim card, employment, etc. The problem with Aadhar (among other things) is that people think its a secret. Its not supposed to be that way.

SSN is meant to be a secret but it's required at all the places you mentioned. At least with Aadhaar, if someone got a copy of my number, it can't be used without MFA.

Yes, parent is confusing identification with authentication.

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