The government has told the Supreme Court that the Aadhaar data “remains safely behind 13-feet high walls” and it will take “the age of the universe” to break one key in the Unique Identification Authority of India’s (UIDAI’s) encryption.

Even if this claim is taken at face value, experts suggest leaks from third-party databases seeded with Aadhaar numbers are equally dangerous and the UIDAI is responsible for the damage. The most recent case came from a report published online and it said random numbers could provide access to the Aadhaar ...