AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 536 - Will Big Indian Brother Set the Global Biometric Standard for Big Brother?

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, September 17, 2010

536 - Will Big Indian Brother Set the Global Biometric Standard for Big Brother?

Privacy and security clash as DHS tests iris scans at the Border Patrol. But Big Brother in India starts iris scans, fingerprinting and facial recognition photos for 1.2 billion residents.
By Ms. Smith on Thu, 09/16/10 - 11:19am.

DHS will start iris scans at the Border Patrol station in McAllen, Texas, and claims it will destroy all biometric and biographic data at the conclusion of the project to track illegal aliens, ComputerWorld reported. Although this Big Brother biometric type of monitoring sends privacy invasion chills up my spine, it is nothing when compared to the massive and chilling Big Brother biometric scenario kicking off in India this month.

As reported by the government of India, 1.2 billion unique identification numbers (UID) will be given out to India's residents. The 12-digit unique number, called Aadhaar, will be issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), stored in a centralized database and linked to "basic demographics and biometric information" – a photograph, ten fingerprints and both irises scanned – of each individual. 440 million Indians are below the poverty level and the UID is supposed to improve their situations.

The UIDAI Strategy Overview included the future of electronic transactions for which the need for cash might be eliminated for Indian residents. "Rural residents will be able to transact electronically with each other as well as with individuals and firms outside the village, reducing their dependence on cash."

Although it is not mandatory for India's residents to get an UID, a number of social services and some banks will require people to have one. According to Yahoo India, some privacy advocates warn that corruption previously infected the multitude of other Indian ID cards now in use for services. Additionally, putting all the personal information in one system could open the possibilities for it to be misused as "oppressive technologically-enabled surveillance."

According to UID Project: Identity Crisis, "There are bigger worries that the project may completely change the norms of privacy, confidentiality and security of personal information. There are currently various pieces of information available separately and held in discrete 'silos' by the government departments. The citizen usually gives information that is necessary for any agency to do the job. While telephone companies may not know about your health details, your hospital need not know your income details. Its critics argue that the personal information of citizens is rendered all the more vulnerable to misuse in an atmosphere that encourages private participation in social service delivery."

Earlier this year, China began issuing smart cards to its citizens. "The cards can also help identify those who use ATMs, enter a building with an electronic guard system or even pick up their children from kindergarten."

Back in the U.S., Biometrics Identity Management Agency (BIMA) recently celebrated ten years of Department of Defense (DoD) biometrics. BIMA stated it is working "with the Air Force on installing the Defense Biometric Identification System (DBIDS) registration station at 70 Air Force sites in the continental U.S. by October 2011." BIMA added, "We're working more closely internally and with our inter-agency partners, to include Department of Justice/FBI, Department of Homeland Security and Department of State."

Governments and organizations are wanting more than one technology on a credential, said Stephen Price-Francis, vice president of marketing at LaserCard. He added, "We are finding that our existing user and our potential customers are asking us to mix and match on one card platform...The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is one agency that makes such a request. The new Permanent Resident Card, or Green card, combines optical stripe technology with an RFID tag that can be used for expedited land border crossings."

Could the iris scans by Texas Border Patrol only be a beginning to get us used to the idea of biometric security being hyped as a good thing? If iris scans matched with a photo for facial recognition software become the basis to prevent fraud, then the day might come when accessing online banking would require a web camera that would check irises for positive unique matches. Some privacy advocates worry that iris scans and cameras might be used covertly to track us. ACLU lawyer Christopher Calabrese told USA Today, "If you can identify any individual at a distance and without their knowledge, you literally allow the physical tracking of a person anywhere there's a camera and access to the Internet."

With India leading the charge, biometric identification is unlikely to fade away. In fact, it seems likely that more and more information will be linked to a centralized database that would change privacy forever as seen in this old ACLU pizza order parody.