Digital integration in India is in full swing as the education sector, approved by the Goa government, will see the issuance of a unique 12-digit document. APPEAR (Automated Permanent Academic Account Register) identification number for students across the state.

According to a report by Times of IndiaThe ID will serve as a lifelong digital identity for students, allowing educational records to be consistently tracked and accessed as students progress through various academic stages. The APAAR ID will be generated using each student’s Aadhaar number, making it easy to create a DigiLocker account where academic documents can be securely stored in digital form.

APAAR was introduced by the Union government as part of a recommendation in the National Education Policy 2020, which called for the establishment of an online “academic bank” to store credits earned by students during their higher education.

Although aimed at streamlining data management and improving educational tracking, the initiative has raised privacy concerns among civil society groups and digital rights activists.

The APAAR system, as part of a broader digital public infrastructure (DPI) agenda.is expected to create a centralized database to store students’ academic records, attendance and other school-related information. Goa joins several states in India that have adopted similar systems to manage student data more efficiently.

The Goa Education Department plans to work with schools to integrate the APAAR ID system, seeing it as a step towards realizing the government’s vision of a unified, data-driven education infrastructure.

Privacy concerns are on the surface

Digital rights organizations, incl Internet Freedom Foundation forum, raised alarms about the APAAR ID system, questioning the security measures in place and the potential for data misuse.

Activists are concerned that creating such detailed digital profiles of minors, without strong safeguards, can lead to data mining, surveillance and profiling. With children’s data potentially accessible to multiple agencies, civil rights groups argue that risks to student privacy could escalate without transparent data protection frameworks.

Concerns are heightened by the fact that the implementation of the APAAR comes before a finalized national data protection law, leaving room for ambiguities in data sharing policies and oversight mechanisms. Critics argue that APAAR could set a precedent for normalizing pervasive data collection, especially as personal data is increasingly at the center of state-run digital initiatives.

While the government highlights the benefits of this initiative, activists have spoken out Scroll down that the implementation of a digital registry like APAR is premature given the country’s current lack of universal digital literacy and the government’s ongoing challenges in providing basic facilities to all schools across the country.

Article topics

Aadhaar | APPEAR | biometry | Digital ID | identity management | India | Student ID