India, Dec. 13 -- There's no other way to put it. One day, someone, somewhere looked into an airport camera, blinked, and was allowed to pass. The next day, social media warriors had declared: "Your biometrics is now the property of a private cartel." If they are to be believed, Digi Yatra had cloned users while they slept. This is the India we live in: we trust facial unlock to open our banking apps. But fear it will betray us at an airport.

Three tribes power this drama.

The first tribe is the activist-expert class-people who discovered cybersecurity last Tuesday and now broadcast warnings with the confidence of prophets. They shout "Black box!" and "Surveillance!". Nobody stops to ask a basic question: Where exactly are these billion...