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

Saturday, April 15, 2017

11046 - Benefits of Aadhaar are real but so are fears of biometric theft. Here's why - Economic Times


By Shelley Singh, ET Bureau | Apr 13, 2017, 06.31 AM IST
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Technology could make Aadhaar vulnerable. It needs to be further strengthened as devices can be compromised to extract biometrics if the target is high value.

Big Change:

As far as identification technology for citizens goes, nothing in the world rivals or even comes close to Aadhaar. The biometric-based (fingerprints and iris scans) 12-digit unique identity, now used by almost 1.1 billion Indians, is the most advanced of its kind. Jaijit Bhattacharya, partner, strategy and economics, KPMG India says, "India is at least a decade ahead of any other country in terms of using biometrics as an identity." 

The US and other countries use biometrics at immigration. Australia and Canada use biometric-based checks for border control. Israel also has Aadhaar-like biometric database of all Israeli residents. However, "no country is using biometric  based systems in as wide range of applications as India is envisaging," says Madhur Singhal, partner, Bain & Company. 

Plagued as India is by the menace of duplicate cards—random estimates suggest many citizens have anywhere from two to five driving licences, ration cards and the like—Aadhaar is the only one that evidently can't be duplicated. And the government is pushing Aadhaar for almost everything—marriage certificates, passports, pension claims, opening bank accounts and now for mobile connections and also to be linked to PAN cards. 



Neel Ratan, leader, government and public sector, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) India, says, "It makes immense sense to use Aadhaar to solve numerous problems in society—like targeting subsidies to right people. Ghost beneficiaries have disappeared with its use." 

Aadhaar is already being used in multiple places (see graphic). Its biggest benefit is universal and trusted verification of any individual and, as a result, Aadhaar is being used to acquire and authenticate customers faster in businesses like financial services or banking by doing eKYC (electronic Know Your Customer), eSigning of documents and so on. 

Besides, "the government is linking transfer of subsidies and other benefits through Aadhaar. This ensures transparency. Aadhaar will form the basis for digital storage of documents as well, very soon," says Singhal. Even as the Aadhaar world expands, there have been noises about why it is being made mandatory for multiple government schemes and how secure it is. 

The Supreme Court has already noted that not having Aadhaar cannot be the basis for denying services. Certain groups have questioned security and raised privacy concerns. Recently, even former cricket captain MS Dhoni's personal details were made public by a private Aadhaar enrolment centre, which has now been banned for 10 years. 

BIOMETRICS AREN'T IMPREGNABLE 
Aadhaar looks super hi-tech and impregnable today. But technology itself could make it vulnerable. Aadhaar needs to be further strengthened as devices can be compromised to extract biometrics if the target is high value. Bhattacharya says, "Also, biometrics such as fingerprints have been shown to be compromised by taking a high resolution picture of the fingers and converting it into fingerprint gloves." Be careful when you pose with the victory sign or a thumbs up 'like' sign before cameras. 


Fears of biometric theft are real and now the Japanese have reportedly started using skin-coloured gloves when being photographed so fingerprints can't be lifted, which is possible via high-resolution photographs taken from a distance of 10 metres or less. Researchers at Japan's National Institute of Informatics (NII) were able to copy fingerprints based on photos taken by digital cameras. 

"Just by casually making a peace sign in front of a camera, fingerprints can become widely available," NII researcher Isao Echizen was quoted in a January 11 post. He added that anyone can easily copy fingerprints. "Similarly, iris scans can be compromised. It's possible to wear silicone implants with someone else fingersprints to access, say bank account, if that's the only mode of access," says Bhattacharya. 

Adds Pradeep Dubey, Intel Fellow, Intel Labs director, parallel computing lab, "Biometrics has its own unique domain specific algorithms. The new trend is multi-modal— combine multiple forms of biometric features such as fingerprints, voice, iris and gait to improve recognition and resilience." 

Dubey believes the way out is to combine biometrics with non-biometric identification approaches, like one-time passwords. Some biometric hacking techniques are expensive and futuristic. Ratan feels "security fears are being overplayed." Eventually, though, nothing is 100% secure, particularly any computer-based system. 

Ratan says, "Aadhaar has the best possible security at present. Criticism comes from people who don't get any benefit from Aadhaar. Ask the poor and those who benefit and it's a different story."