AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 12936 - Mozilla executive pens an open letter on India's data privacy laws and Aadhaar

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, February 12, 2018

12936 - Mozilla executive pens an open letter on India's data privacy laws and Aadhaar - NeoWin

https://www.neowin.net/news/mozilla-executive-pens-an-open-letter-on-indias-data-privacy-laws-and-aadhaar

Mozilla executive pens an open letter on India's data privacy laws and Aadhaar

By Gurkaran Singh @karansingh990 · Feb 9, 2018 · HOT!

Mozilla's chief executive chairwoman, Mitchell Baker, has penned an open letter that was published as a full-page ad in the Hindustan Times- one of the most widely read dailies in India. The letter is addressed to the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's Committee of Experts headed by Justice Srikrishna, which is set up to establish a data protection framework for the country.

Mozilla's letter urges the committee, and specifically Justice Srikrishna, to "stand up for the privacy and security of all Indians," and comes weeks after the committee published a White Paper inviting discourse over the complexities of data protection. It's unclear at the moment whether Mozilla has officially submitted its suggestions to the committee.

The letter also talks about India's Aadhaar, a 12-digit unique identification number that is issued by the Government of India to its residents. Managed by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), those who volunteer to register are required to provide their biometric information.

Although the ID is voluntary - as far as legalities are concerned - its possession is a requirement for many government and non-government services, including things like having a bank account, a phone connection, or receiving government aid. In recent times, the Indian government has been pushing the system comprehensively onto its residents, sometimes leading to horrifying results.

That is not all, however, as there are grave concerns over the security and integrity of Aadhaar's massive biometric database and UIDAI's inability to maintain the privacy of those who have enrolled into Aadhaar. Several cases of forged cards, stolen identities, and fraudulent cases have come forth in the past few months, with the government going as far as prosecuting journalists who bring these issues to light. At the backdrop of all this commotion, the Supreme Court of India ruled in August last year that privacy is a fundamental right for every Indian.

Baker echoes a growing concern regarding the system's efficiency that many, including those involved with Mozilla, are worried about. She suggests a few points to the committee, that may iterate upon the currently-published version of the White Paper:

The current proposal exempts biometric info from the definition of sensitive personal information that must be especially protected. This is backwards, biometric info is some of the most personal info, and can’t be “reset’ like a password.
The design of Aadhaar fails to provide meaningful consent to users. This is seen, for example, by the ever increasing number of public and private services that are linked to Aadhaar without users being given a meaningful choice in the matter. This can and should be remedied by stronger consent, data minimization, collection limitation, and purpose limitation obligations.
Instead of crafting narrow exemptions for the legitimate needs of law enforcement, you propose to exempt entire agencies from accountability and legal restrictions on how user data may be accessed and processed.
Your report also casts doubt on whether individuals should be allowed a right to object over how their data is processed; this is a core pillar of data protection, without a right to object, consent is not meaningful and individual liberty is curtailed.

The letter is in keeping with one of the major principles of Mozilla's own manifesto that states: “Individual security and privacy is fundamental and must not be treated as optional online”. Baker also writes how essential data protection is in order to guarantee the right to privacy, and how the company's Indian community has been instrumental in making people aware of the importance of data protection;

Mozilla is pretty clear about its own roll with regards to privacy as well. In a recent interview with Neowin, Mozilla's Barbara Bermes said that the company intends to provide "the most privacy by design and by default."

The Supreme Court of India is currently hearing a case on Aadhaar in which a senior advocate, speaking against Aadhaar, has argued that the system is unconstitutional. The court, however, disagrees; it is set to hear the advancing arguments on February 13.

Source: Mozilla