Why this Blog ? News articles in the Wide World of Web, quite often disappear with time, when they are relocated as archives with a different url. Archives in this blog serve as a library for those who are interested in doing Research on Aadhaar Related Topics. Articles are published with details of original publication date and the url.
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
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
210 - Schools Banks & other entities to get ID too
NEW DELHI: Now institutions like schools, banks and even government departments may get a Unique ID number, which the government plans to term as Entity ID (EID). The Unique ID Authority of India has come out with a numbering plan for generating 12- digit ID numbers. It has plans to keep aside some UID numbers for allotment to institutions.
“This is to ensure that if such a need arises in future, we might be prepared,” said Srikanth Nadamuni, technology head at Unique ID Authority of India, who is busy in preparing an algorithm for generating the ID numbers, to be rolled out by February 2011. The algorithm will be classified as a national secret. This is to make sure that a Unique ID number can’t be guessed easily to avoid fraud. The 11-digits itself will make for over 100 billion number combinations.
But a 12th ‘escape’ digit will be added, just to provide for a possibility, if the pool of 100 billion numbers starts filling up rapidly , in an unlikely scenario of a population explosion.
“We plan to make the number not guessable as it is with ID numbers in some other countries,” said Mr Nadamuni, who has joined UIDAI from the private sector. “The aim is to keep the ratio of population to number of possible combinations below 0.05 at all times,” he explained. Just for record, for 1.1 billion Unique IDs (India’s current population), the ratio will be 0.011.
In US, some university researchers have managed to crack the algorithm of generating social security numbers. They can generate a social security number just by possessing the date of birth or location of an individual. In countries like China, date of birth can be guessed from some ID numbers. “We believe that inserting a parameter in an ID number might lead to data privacy issues. So, we plan to make the number not disclose anything about a person,” he added.
A number generated to a citizen will remain unique till eternity. And, if a citizen fails to use his or her Unique ID at any bank, telecom company or any other application form for a period spanning ten years, the government might consider him or her as ‘expired’ . “One simple way to deal with that is to flag UID record as inactive once one confirms the death.
The 'timeout' may however be changed,” say authority officials. This is to ensure that NREGA payments or other benefits cannot be misused in the event of a person’s death.