Goa’s APAAR ID for students sparks privacy concerns amid digital integration push

Digital integration in India is in full swing as the education sector, signed off by the Goa government, will see the issuance of a unique 12-digit APAAR (Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry) identification number to school students across the state. According to a report by Times of India, the ID will serve as a lifelong digital identity for students, allowing educational records to be consistently tracked and accessed as students progress through different academic stages. The APAAR ID will be generated using each student’s Aadhaar number, facilitating the creation of 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 from the National Education Policy 2020, which called for establishing an online "academic bank" to store students' earned credits throughout their higher education. While aimed at streamlining data management and enhancing educational tracking, the initiative has prompted 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 other states in India that have adopted similar systems to manage student data more efficiently. Goa’s Department of Education plans to work with schools to integrate the APAAR ID system, seeing it as a step toward realizing the government’s vision of a unified, data-driven educational infrastructure.

Privacy concerns surface

Digital rights organizations, including the Internet Freedom Foundation forum, raised alarms regarding 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 for minors, without robust safeguards, may lead to data exploitation, 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 amplified by the fact that the implementation of APAAR comes ahead of a finalized national data protection law, leaving room for ambiguity in data sharing policies and oversight mechanisms. Critics argue that APAAR could set a precedent for normalizing pervasive data collection, particularly as personal data is increasingly at the center of state-administered digital initiatives. While the government highlights the benefits of this initiative, activists expressed to Scroll that implementing 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 amenities to all schools nationwide.