Thursday, December 02, 2010
Fear of UID Number’s Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) being Wikileaked
Notes from Nilekani’s Lecture on UID/Aadhaar
Fear of UID Number’s Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) being Wikileaked
At the annual Rajinder Mathur Memorial Lecture, Nandan Nilekani, Chairperson, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) at the India International Centre Annexe Auditorium, New Delhi on December 2, spoke on Unique Identification Number: "Aadhaar – Its role in inclusion and public service delivery transformation". (Pictures attached)
The talk was followed by a question and answer session. Nilekani faced questions on issues ranging from privacy concerns, misplaced claims about benefits to migrant workers, food security and NREGA. There was no convincing answer about the estimated total budget for UIDAI. He kept referring to the budget of the first phase which is Rs 3,000 crore.
Questions were raised about UID Number compromising national security similar to what Wikileaks has done. Nilekani said, it is for the government to combat such threats. It is being done through a proposed legal framework that is being envisaged to safeguard the privacy of the resident’s data and also take care of the security requirements of the country.
Interestingly, he said, laws to curb the theft and misuse of personal data need to be put in place but only after the UID Number scheme is implemented. The talk happened in the backdrop of the proposed UID Bill scheduled to be introduced in Parliament this week. The National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010 shows that this is what is exactly happening.
Amidst massive opposition, Nilekani claimed that there no mass movement to oppose the UID Number scheme. The students present raised grave concerns about the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the UIDAI which is meant to create a system to track students through an electronic register besides the Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR), right from the primary level through secondary and higher education and imprinting of the UID number on the performance records of students, including mark-sheets, merit certificates and migration certificates.
As the debate on the UID grows, more and more groups of concerned citizens, former judges, jurists, parliamentarians and policy makers have expressed their worries over the world’s largest data management project. Even moderator of the Memorial Lecture, Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief CNN-IBN expressed his concern about privacy over leaked tapes between journalists, political leaders, bureaucrats and the big corporate groups. The question about the share holding pattern of the UIDAI officials, including Nilekani and conflict of interest emerging from it did not get any convincing response.