New Delhi, March 18 -- Aadhaar is the world's largest biometric identity system with approximately 134 crore live Aadhaar holders, the Ministry of Electronics & IT said on Wednesday. Maintained by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the platform has recorded more than 17,000 crore authentication transactions to date, serving as a primary tool for identity verification across the country.

Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Jitin Prasada in the Lok Sabha, noted that the Aadhaar ecosystem is designed to protect privacy. According to the Ministry, demographic data remains encrypted both at rest and in transit.

By design and architecture, the storage and processing of Aadhaar data takes place...