APAAR Goa ID for students raises privacy concerns amid push for digital inclusion

Digital inclusion in India is in full swing as a unique 12-digit ID will be issued in the education sector with the approval of the Goa government APAAR (Automatic Permanent Academic Account Registry) identification number for students in schools throughout the state.

According to a report by India timesthe ID will serve as a lifelong digital identity for students, enabling them to consistently track and access their education records as students progress through different stages of their learning. The APAAR ID will be generated based on the Aadhaar number of each student, making it easier to create an APAAR ID DigiLocker an account where you can safely store your academic documents in digital form.

APAAR was introduced by the Union government as part of the recommendations of the National Education Policy 2020, which called for the creation of an online ‘academic bank’ to store credits earned by students throughout their studies.

While the initiative aimed to improve data management and improve education monitoring, it raised privacy concerns among civil society groups and digital rights activists.

APAAR system within a broader Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) agenda.is to create a centralized database that will store students’ academic records, attendance and other school-related information. Goa joins several other states in India that have adopted similar systems to manage student data more effectively.

The Goa Education Department plans to work with schools to integrate the APAAR ID system, seeing it as a step towards realizing the government’s vision of a unified data-driven education infrastructure.

Privacy is about surfaces

Digital rights organizations incl Internet Freedom Foundation forum, expressed alarm about the APAAR identification system, questioning the security measures in place and the possibility of data misuse.

Activists fear that creating such detailed digital profiles of minors without robust safeguards could lead to data exploitation, surveillance and profiling. Because children’s data could potentially be accessed by multiple agencies, civil rights groups argue that without a clear data protection framework, threats to student privacy could increase.

Concerns are compounded by the fact that the implementation of APAAR occurs before the final adoption of national data protection laws, leaving room for ambiguity regarding data sharing policies and oversight mechanisms. Critics say APAAR could set a precedent for normalizing widespread data collection, especially as personal data increasingly finds itself at the center of state-administered digital initiatives.

Although the government emphasizes the benefits of this initiative, activists have expressed their opinions Scroll that the implementation of a digital register such as APAR is premature, given the current lack of universal digital literacy in the country and the ongoing challenges facing the government in providing basic facilities to all schools across the country.

Article topics

Aadhaar | APAAR | biometrics | digital ID | identity management | India | student ID card