Vinod Kumar Gupta
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
PATNA: A National Seminar deliberated on “Idea of Unique Identification (UID) Number” and rejected the project as it risks privacy of citizens.
Dr. Usha Ramanathan noted Jurist of Supreme Court, said that UID is basically a control of Identity through Technology but there are many potential privacy fallouts of this project. Risks that arise from this include possible errors in the collection of information, recording of inaccurate data, corruption of data from anonymous sources, and unauthorized access to or disclosure of personal information to unauthorized persons, said Dr. Usha.
“The biggest misuse of the system will be the hackers accessing the database and passing on information to commercial outfits, intelligence agencies or even criminals gangs.”
UID project is about Technology and application of Technology. She also stressed that we should be able to control technology and neither the technology nor the people who control the technology should control us.
Dr. Usha said that number of reports claim that obtaining a unique number would be voluntary, but those that opt to stay out of the system will find it very inconvenient as they will not have access to facilities that require you to cite your ID number.
Other countries with national identification systems have confronted numerous problems with similar risks such as trading and selling of information, India is ill-equipped to deal with such problems. So, it is important to stop this project and for this public domain is important and people should know the real concept of UID.
Anil Chaudhary of INSAF said that this concept was first started by the corporate sector and later rest of them followed it. This project is good for the ruling class but will not stand beneficial for the ruled. Basically it is a revival plan of IT sector. Speakers opined that the idea of a 12-digit number is unlikely to rectify the problems of poor people, as it will help little in checking massive corruption in the public distribution system supposed to provide food to poor families, the reports said.
Dr. Usha Ramanathan noted Jurist of Supreme Court, said that UID is basically a control of Identity through Technology but there are many potential privacy fallouts of this project. Risks that arise from this include possible errors in the collection of information, recording of inaccurate data, corruption of data from anonymous sources, and unauthorized access to or disclosure of personal information to unauthorized persons, said Dr. Usha.
“The biggest misuse of the system will be the hackers accessing the database and passing on information to commercial outfits, intelligence agencies or even criminals gangs.”
UID project is about Technology and application of Technology. She also stressed that we should be able to control technology and neither the technology nor the people who control the technology should control us.
Dr. Usha said that number of reports claim that obtaining a unique number would be voluntary, but those that opt to stay out of the system will find it very inconvenient as they will not have access to facilities that require you to cite your ID number.
Other countries with national identification systems have confronted numerous problems with similar risks such as trading and selling of information, India is ill-equipped to deal with such problems. So, it is important to stop this project and for this public domain is important and people should know the real concept of UID.
Anil Chaudhary of INSAF said that this concept was first started by the corporate sector and later rest of them followed it. This project is good for the ruling class but will not stand beneficial for the ruled. Basically it is a revival plan of IT sector. Speakers opined that the idea of a 12-digit number is unlikely to rectify the problems of poor people, as it will help little in checking massive corruption in the public distribution system supposed to provide food to poor families, the reports said.