India’s Aadhaar system is the world’s largest biometric identification database and its largest biometric disaster. Containing fingerprints, iris scans, and demographic data of over 1.3 billion people, Aadhaar turned human identity into a centralized honeypot.

Predictably, Aadhaar started as a voluntary program to tackle benefit fraud. Eventually it became mandatory for accessing welfare schemes. It was sold as financial inclusion, bringing banking and government services to India’s poorest citizens. It became a case study in the dangers of centralized biometric databases.