The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has successfully conducted a facial authentication test during the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET UG) 2025 in New Delhi. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) and National Testing Agency (NTA) collaborated on the pilot as well.
According to a MeitY press release, the proof-of-concept test was conducted to evaluate the “feasibility and effectiveness of Aadhaar-based face authentication” to verify the identity of candidates appearing for NEET UG, one of the largest entrance examinations in the country.
MeitY claims a “very high level of accuracy and efficiency in candidate verification.” The government authority also added that the test indicates potential for “future use cases,” but did not mention any specifics in its announcement.
With over 815 million Aadhaar records, including biometric information, already available on the dark web, Aadhaar isn’t the most secure means of verification in the country. Additionally, the use of facial recognition in an undergraduate exam, where a majority of students would be under 18 years of age, raises privacy concerns.
The announcement states nothing about the government seeking informed consent from the candidates used in the test. Even if informed consent was taken, students under 18 aren’t adults and hence can’t provide consent. This goes against the students’ fundamental right to privacy.
Medha Gard, a Freedom Innovation Fellow at the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), pointed out in conversation with MediaNama that, as per the Supreme Court’s K.S. Puttaswamy judgment, an entity seeking to collect data must obtain consent from the children whose data it is collecting.
Since the test was mandatory in select New Delhi exam centres where it was run, the authorities did not give students an alternative to verify their identity at the centre, effectively forcing them to participate. Garg also pointed out that UIDAI is using old facial data to run these tests, which increases the chances of the verification test failing, especially considering how quickly facial features can change quickly during adolescence.
The test comes shortly after the NTA received flak for the NEET UG 2024 paper leaking to the public. While the test might do well to verify students at centres, provided the government works out the privacy and security issues, the question of protecting the question papers themselves is mainly left unanswered.
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