The Supreme Court on Tuesday questioned the need for the Unique Identification Authority of India to collect meta data of transactions citizens carry out using Aadhaar authentication, PTI reported. Meta data is the information that describes and includes details of other data.

Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the UIDAI, argued that the Aadhaar authority only retained “limited technical meta data” to control the requesting entities – platforms that seek Aadhaar numbers for authentication – to grant benefits. Accusing petitioners of misunderstanding the concept of meta data, he explained that the data collected does not include location or the purpose of transaction.

“Regulations are designed to protect objective principles that define reasonable expectation of privacy,” Dwivedi said, adding that the 2016 Aadhaar enabling law cannot be struck down because of the possibility of data breaches.

A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court is hearing a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar programme and its enabling law. The petitioners have raised privacy concerns and have also questioned why the identity number has been made mandatory for people to avail of welfare schemes, file income tax returns, and hold mobile numbers and bank accounts.