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

Friday, March 2, 2018

12911 - Aadhaar Articles Dated



Moneycontrol.com
The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has now introduced UAN-Aadhaar linking facility for members through the UMANG Mobile App. The Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance or UMANG app is a one-stop application for availing all important government services ...






Business Today
The e-KYC deadline for mobile wallets ends on Wednesday night (February 28). Those who've not done it have just a few hours to complete the KYC process. Once the deadline ends, you won't be able to use all features of your mobile wallet services. However, Paytm's KYC option seemed to face some ...



MediaNama.com
French security researcher, Baptiste Robert used a basic SQL (structured query language) injection web hacking technique to attack the Telangana government's benefits disbursement portal called TSPost, to access account details of 56 lakh National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) ...






Hindustan Times
Petitioners opposed to the mandatory linking of Aadhaar with bank accounts, phone numbers and other services will seek an extension of the deadline for such linkage, their lawyers said on Tuesday, citing the low probability of the case being concluded in the Supreme Court by March 31, the current ...






Zee Business
The proposed Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill provides for linking of driving licence and vehicle registration with Aadhaar-based platform and proposes heavy penalties for traffic violations. The Bill has been passed in Lok Sabha but is awaiting Rajya Sabha nod. Prasad further said that the government ...






The Indian Express
An escaped murder convict's near-perfect disappearance came to a sudden end when investigators found that he had linked his mobile number to his Aadhaar card, and then arrested him after successfully tracking his location through his phone. Now 37, Satish Mahipal Walmiki was was serving his life ...






Times of India
Last year, the Maharashtra government had decided to provide every newborn with an Aadhaar card and link the child's number with that of the parents. A government resolution had stated that Aadhaar enrolment was to be undertaken simultaneously with the birth registration at hospital. For this, either ...






Hindustan Times
“A worker from the same centre that had earlier denied Aadhaar card to me today came to my house with his equipment and took my iris scan. He said I will get my Aadhaar card soon. Other officials are calling me up to enquire about me. If they had worked sincerely earlier, I would not have to bear so ...






The Tribune
Only 221 branches of private and public sector banks in Haryana have opened Aadhaar enrolment and update centres on their premises up to February 9 against the target of 568 branches. The deadline for opening such centres is March 31. Out of these, 52 centres are yet to start the enrolment process ...






The Telegraph
Jamshedpur: Updating details in Aadhaar card is now a nightmare for Jamshedpureans, thanks to frequent link failures at seven post offices that offer the service. The Aadhaar update service started three months ago to enable people to rectify mistakes in Aadhaar cards issued to them, such as change ...






DATAQUEST
Ezetap, the payment solutions company, has launched one of its kind devices – EzeSmart. The product is India's first open-platform, smart GPRS terminal enabled with Aadhaar pay and eKYC, that delivers a superior digital payment experience. Digital transactions have been on the upswing over the last ...



Firstpost
One of senior counsel Gopal Subramaniam's arguments in the ongoing Aadhaar case was on the Aadhaar system as the use of a technology (the biometric authentication), which resulted in the denial of essential services, and therefore constitutional rights, as a result of the failures/errors of the algorithm ...






Inc42 Media
Amid RBI hardening the KYC compliance for PPIs, digital payments startup and mPOS maker Ezetap has launched another device EzeSmart, an open-platform enabled with GPRS services, Aadhaar pay and eKYC. As Bhaktha Keshavachar, co-founder and CTO of Ezetap said, “EzeSmart is the ...






Ahmedabad Mirror
Be on your guard, Amdavadis. There could be a personal loan or a credit card in your name that you have no idea about. That is, if you are one of the 55,000 people whose documents submitted for Aadhaar card registration has been misplaced by the authorised contractors. Even as questions regarding ...






HuffPost South Africa
Subramanian is part of a Facebook group where people share stories about Aadhaar data being leaked or misused. "One member posted that he'd received an email from a bank official in India, which had details of all the bank accounts in that branch, with Aadhaar numbers attached," he says.






thenortheasttoday.com
The Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution on Monday said that during the three years of NDA government, at least three crore fake and duplicate ration cards were canceled. The minister CR Chaudhary said that linking of the ration cards to the holder's Aadhaar ...






Tech Observer
With digital transactions being on the upswing over the last two years with the introduction of multiple, India-specific payment instruments like Unified Payment Interface (UPI), Bharat QR and Aadhaar Pay, an Indian firm Ezetap has launched EzeSmart, a smartphone integrated POS terminal solution with ...






India Today
Though the Centre has instructed state governments to deport Rohingyas, Gazi hopes that the Mamata Banerjee government will arrange Voter ID/Aadhaar cards for the refugees so that they can avail government facilities and live properly. We need Aadhaar cards and Voter ID cards because it is very ...






Economic Times
Modi said as many as 400 welfare programmes now reached beneficiaries through direct benefit transfers to their bank accounts. This impressive achievement cuts delivery costs and corruption, and eliminates ghost card holders. He praised the trinity of JAM (Jan Dhan accounts, Aadhaar and mobile ...






Financial Express
Once you select the relevant claim, a detailed form will be displayed. Fill in the form online and authenticate using Aadhaar OTP to complete the online claim submission. EPFO will obtain your KYC, i.e. Aadhaar details, from UIDAI and your online PF claim will be processed and your bank account will be ...



Hindustan Times
On February 10, officials of Unit 2 raided Chaudhary's shop 'Sunil Enterprises' situated in Swastik house, Masjid Bunder and arrested him along with his accomplice, Attaullah Malik, 24, for allegedly making forged government documents like Aadhaar card, PAN card, voter identification card and several ...






Financial Express
So far, fertiliser outlets in 31 states/UTs in the country have installed electronic point of sale (ePoS) devices linked to Aadhaar. And, according to preliminary estimates, the subsidy outgo on these farm inputs has reduced by around a third thanks to the new mechanism — flagged as in-kind direct benefit ...






The Siasat Daily
We are making significant technology investments and have designed our product to work with multiple verification sources including Aadhaar, PAN and driving license databases. We look forward to working closely with our business partners and the regulators to make digital interactions safer, simpler, ...






India Today
The Aadhaar number has been made compulsory for all candidates except those from Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and Meghalaya. Further, the applicants need to give their consent to the CBSE to validate the same. However, this is not applicable in Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and Meghalaya.