In 2009, I became extremely concerned with the concept of Unique Identity for various reasons. Connected with many like minded highly educated people who were all concerned.
On 18th May 2010, I started this Blog to capture anything and everything I came across on the topic. This blog with its million hits is a testament to my concerns about loss of privacy and fear of the ID being misused and possible Criminal activities it could lead to.
In 2017 the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict after one of the longest hearings on any issue. I did my bit and appealed to the Supreme Court Judges too through an On Line Petition.
In 2019 the Aadhaar Legislation has been revised and passed by the two houses of the Parliament of India making it Legal. I am no Legal Eagle so my Opinion carries no weight except with people opposed to the very concept.
In 2019, this Blog now just captures on a Daily Basis list of Articles Published on anything to do with Aadhaar as obtained from Daily Google Searches and nothing more. Cannot burn the midnight candle any longer.
"In Matters of Conscience, the Law of Majority has no place"- Mahatma Gandhi
Ram Krishnaswamy
Sydney, Australia.

Aadhaar

The UIDAI has taken two successive governments in India and the entire world for a ride. It identifies nothing. It is not unique. The entire UID data has never been verified and audited. The UID cannot be used for governance, financial databases or anything. It’s use is the biggest threat to national security since independence. – Anupam Saraph 2018

When I opposed Aadhaar in 2010 , I was called a BJP stooge. In 2016 I am still opposing Aadhaar for the same reasons and I am told I am a Congress die hard. No one wants to see why I oppose Aadhaar as it is too difficult. Plus Aadhaar is FREE so why not get one ? Ram Krishnaswamy

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.-Mahatma Gandhi

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.Mahatma Gandhi

“The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.” Article 21 of the Indian constitution refers to the right to life and liberty -Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi

“There is merit in the complaints. You are unwittingly allowing snooping, harassment and commercial exploitation. The information about an individual obtained by the UIDAI while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a court for the purpose of criminal investigation.”-A three judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said in an interim order.

Legal scholar Usha Ramanathan describes UID as an inverse of sunshine laws like the Right to Information. While the RTI makes the state transparent to the citizen, the UID does the inverse: it makes the citizen transparent to the state, she says.

Good idea gone bad
I have written earlier that UID/Aadhaar was a poorly designed, unreliable and expensive solution to the really good idea of providing national identification for over a billion Indians. My petition contends that UID in its current form violates the right to privacy of a citizen, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is because sensitive biometric and demographic information of citizens are with enrolment agencies, registrars and sub-registrars who have no legal liability for any misuse of this data. This petition has opened up the larger discussion on privacy rights for Indians. The current Article 21 interpretation by the Supreme Court was done decades ago, before the advent of internet and today’s technology and all the new privacy challenges that have arisen as a consequence.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP Rajya Sabha

“What is Aadhaar? There is enormous confusion. That Aadhaar will identify people who are entitled for subsidy. No. Aadhaar doesn’t determine who is eligible and who isn’t,” Jairam Ramesh

But Aadhaar has been mythologised during the previous government by its creators into some technology super force that will transform governance in a miraculous manner. I even read an article recently that compared Aadhaar to some revolution and quoted a 1930s historian, Will Durant.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP

“I know you will say that it is not mandatory. But, it is compulsorily mandatorily voluntary,” Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Saba April 2017.

August 24, 2017: The nine-judge Constitution Bench rules that right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty”and is inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the World; indeed it's the only thing that ever has"

“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden

In the Supreme Court, Meenakshi Arora, one of the senior counsel in the case, compared it to living under a general, perpetual, nation-wide criminal warrant.

Had never thought of it that way, but living in the Aadhaar universe is like living in a prison. All of us are treated like criminals with barely any rights or recourse and gatekeepers have absolute power on you and your life.

Announcing the launch of the # BreakAadhaarChainscampaign, culminating with events in multiple cities on 12th Jan. This is the last opportunity to make your voice heard before the Supreme Court hearings start on 17th Jan 2018. In collaboration with @no2uidand@rozi_roti.

UIDAI's security seems to be founded on four time tested pillars of security idiocy

1) Denial

2) Issue fiats and point finger

3) Shoot messenger

4) Bury head in sand.

God Save India

Thursday, August 4, 2016

10248 - Want cash? Just eye the ATM near you - TNN


Rachel Chitra | TNN | Jul 19, 2016, 07.04 AM IST

CHENNAI: Ever thought of looking an ATM in the eye to withdraw cash? Well, lenders like DCB Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra are considering using iris-recognition technology for biometric authentication of transactions. 

In a step towards financial inclusion, banks that have been beta-testing or using fingerprint-recognising ATMs on the ground say that while fingerprint scanners are effective, but there are drawbacks. 

Quite a sizeable number of blue-collar workers and farm labourers who use ATMs have bruises, abrasions or cuts on their fingers. "If the fingerprint is not an exact match, it could lead to rejection of a transaction. Even for the salaried class, it's quite possible for our fingers to be coated with a film of grease or dust. So iris-recognition is something we are looking at adopting as it's safe, non-invasive and foolproof," says Rajiv Anand, executive director and head (retail banking), Axis Bank. The private lender recently launched its `Thought Factory' in Bengaluru -a design lab for innovation that's testing adoption of new technology , including biometric identifiers. 

DCB Bank, which was the first to launch fingerprint-identifier ATMs in India, currently has biometric ATMs in Mumbai, Bengaluru and six other cities in the country. The bank now plans to expand and at tach fingerprint scanners pads to its other 400-plus ATMs across India. "We are keen on biometric authentication and iris-recognition is the next logical step," says Murali Natrajan, managing director, DCB Bank. The bank said it is in talks with a few vendors to provide this service.

"We are still in exploratory stages. But once we have everything in place, implementation shouldn't take too much time. For our fingerprint scanners, we took about four months to bring it live from the time we decided on it," adds Natrajan. At Kotak Mahindra, which has an innovation lab in Bengaluru to betatest new products and services, iris-recognition is something they are looking at entering."For now, we are looking at its usage in both ATMs and e-KYCs for Aadhaar authentication via the UIDAI database.There are quite a few players in the market for biometric devices, including Samsung's offering of smartphones with iris scanners. But we are looking at bluetooth connected biometric devices and will adopt only if our testing has depth and meets on-the-ground requirements 80-90% of the time. The robustness and safety of the solution is our priority," says Deepak Sharma, chief digital officer, Kotak Mahindra.

There are two different approaches for transaction authentication -storing the customer's biometric signaturesauthentication, or riding on the public infrastructure of UIDAI. "But a lot of elements have to come into play -internet connectivity , telecom signals, accessing the UIDAI database. Then again the choice of the device -whether we ought to use a smartphone or a tab, or stand-alone biometric devices. The transaction has to be seamless, instantaneous and follow through, which in the current infrastructure is a little difficult," says Kotak Mahindra's Sharma.

Top Comment
Bio-metric authorization shall positively reduce cyber theft, cloning etc. However need of he hour, one customer at a time be allowed in ATM cabin, there should be alarm bell in the ATM cabin

Jagdip Vaishnav





One of the biggest problems with the Aadhaar is sending the OTP to the registered mobile number. " A majority of SIM cards in India are still prepaid and not postpaid and people keep changing their number frequently or giving it to their spouse or children. So when the OTP is sent, many a time customers themselves haven't a clue as to which mobile number was linked to their Aadhaar card," says Sharma.




Another problem for the group is that on a lot of devices, the networks don't support biometric authentication. "Any miss in even one of the linkage points - be it the switch, the operator or the network - and the transaction will fail. We are an authorized user agency (AUA) with UIDAI, as are some of the other banks, and we route our requests via NPCI. So there is a lot of work cut out for us before we can implement iris-recognition," adds Sharma.