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

Monday, January 1, 2018

12581 - Aadhaar Articles Dated 31st December 2017



Economic Times
It further said that the APY subscriber registration form has been "suitably" modified to obtain the consent of the subscriber for Aadhaar seeding and ... As per the Aadhaar Act, any individual who is eligible to receive benefits under APY will have to furnish proof of possession of the 12-digit unique identity ...



Pune Mirror
He spoke with the Aadhaar customer service from where he was told that he would receive the card soon. Several months passed, but the railway official didn't hear about the whereabouts of his Aadhaar. Having waited patiently, he again applied on March 19, 2013, but his stars ditched him again.






Times of India
Idiya was against Aadhaar from the time she can remember but the latest trigger was a news report she saw this summer. "I made a cartoon on it. Then my father and I kept looking for a platform to show others my work and to participate in the discussions on the issue. That's how we found a Facebook ...






NDTV
Kargil Hero's Widow Allegedly Refused Treatment Over Aadhaar Card, Dies. According to Shakuntala Devi's son Pawan Kumar Balyan, when he took his mother to the Tulip hospital, he was asked to produce her Aadhar card. All India | Edited by Abhimanyu Bose | Updated: December 30, 2017 21:42 ...



Times of India (blog)
The dire threats transformed the 12-digit number from a voluntary facility for users to a sign of our submission to the power of the state. And that's why 2017 is the year of the number. An abiding memory of 2017 is that of being actively pursued by Aadhaar by every service provider that one has been ...






The New Indian Express
The 15-year-old, home-schooled girl, who has taken to the streets against the move, suffers from a rare genetic disorder of the connective tissue called Marfan Syndrome. Eidya staged a protest at ITO on Saturday asking the government to roll back its linking order. “Aadhaar as a concept is good, but the ...






The Asian Age
The 12 digit unique identification number Aadhaar, issued by the federal body — Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) — to all residents of India, as directed by the Aadhaar Act, 2016, contains the biometric details and iris scan of every individual. While the obtaining of the Aadhaar was made ...






Economic Times
However, concerns over the misuse of the data collected for Aadhaar remain. Mobile apps are fast replacing passwords with fingerprint identification. E-payment companies like Paytm and banks use biometric data to authenticate payments and transfers. Facial or iris recognition on phones is glitchy and ...






The Sunday Guardian
The linking of Aadhaar to ration card is also going slow in many states. “Despite several deadlines getting lapsed, many states are still far behind in the linking of the ration system with Aadhaar numbers and so far, only 70% ration cards have been linked to the Aadhaar numbers,” a senior official of the ...






Emit Post
But, any such information related to aadhaar has been removed after the controversy. Ravishankar Prasad recently said in Rajya Sabha that he will look into the matter while answering on cybersecurity and data protection. Facebook has responded by saying that it was conducting a small test about the ...






Defence Aviation Post
The Union government made it mandatory to link the aadhaar card of each individual with various schemes and services such as bank accounts and mobile phone services. Recently, the Supreme Court has extended till March 31 the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with various services and ...






THE WEEK (satire)
The year 2018 is bound to be eventful for India. The fate of the Aadhaar card will be decided; the second Chandrayaan mission to the moon will take off; the Supreme Court will resume hearing on the Ayodhya case which will have far-reaching consequences; the strategic project of equipping Indian Air ...






The Wire
This is why in 2017, nearly a billion Indians were forcefully nudged into re-verifying their SIMs with Aadhaar – a development that was brought on over concerns of terrorists getting their hand on SIM cards – even though the government knew the underlying enrolment system was broken enough for ...






Business Standard
On the Aadhaar front, the ministry reported that the total number of Aadhaar account holders reached 119 crore in 2017, compared to 104 crore in last year. It has also aided more pensioners to register themselves on Jeevan Pramaan - the Aadhaar based platform for biometric authentication of the ...






The Siasat Daily
On the Aadhaar front, the ministry reported that the total number of Aadhaar account holders reached 119 crore in 2017, compared to 104 crore in last year. It has also aided more pensioners to register themselves on Jeevan Pramaan – the Aadhaar based platform for biometric authentication of the ...






Hindu Business Line
The bank decision to unblock the cards is consequent to a news report titled “Aadhaar linking: Customers irked as banks block ATM cards” that appeared in today's (December 30) issue of The Hindu Business Line. It is learnt that these 3500-odd customers were among the 80000+ account holders that ...