AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 2446 - Call Tracking Must Be Operational by May 31: Govt toTSPs

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

Sunday, March 18, 2012

2446 - Call Tracking Must Be Operational by May 31: Govt toTSPs - Outlook India

Call Tracking Must Be Operational by May 31: Govt toTSPs

PTI | NEW DELHI | MAR 15, 2012

The government and telecom service providers were heading towards a virtual deadlock on the issue of telecom companies providing facilities to meet the May 31 deadline of tracking caller locations on real-time basis.

While the service providers, represented by Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Association of Unified Service Providers of Indian (AUSPI) opposed the move, the government showed reluctance to postpone the deadline beyond May 31 and directed the companies to strictly adhere to the time for having location-based servers in place.

The move comes in the wake of concern expressed by the Home Ministry to the Telecom Department over the non-availability of locations of mobiles phones as well as call details indicating the place from where it was made. A high-level meeting was held today in this regard.

Director General of COAI Rajan Mathew said the view point of all service providers was jointly put up with AUSPI before the government in which "we have indicated that the requirements of the government were not possible".

While the government has toughened its stand of not budging beyond the deadline, the operator associations said it would press for extension as various operators were still conducting field trials.

The meeting, which was chaired by Member Technology J K Roy in the DoT and officials from Telecom and Home Ministries, conveyed to operators that they should "strictly adhere" to the May 31 deadline for implementation of location-based services and seek from them the latest status report on including them in call detail records submitted to law enforcement agencies, official sources said.

The Telecom operators have termed the requirement put forth by the ministry as "very stringent" and "highly expensive" requiring massive exercise due to existing topography, technology and "non GPS handsets".

They have told the telecom department that none of the existing network equipment supports location details to be provided with call detail records and hence DoT should not insist on the same, they said.

According to them, as per license agreement only tower identity, and not its coordinates, is needed in the call detail records which has already been provided to the law enforcement agencies as and when required.

The Home Ministry had demanded that all service providers must be able to provide by May 31 the location details of their consumers with certain degree of accuracy and these should be part of call detail records in the form of longitude and latitude, and coordinates of cells sites, which can be made available to security agencies, they said.

The purpose is to track down the location from where the call had originated with an accuracy of 30-90 per cent in an area of 50-300 m depending on the population and area.

According to the official sources, the home ministry has asked them to first acquire capabilities for the specified numbers given to them and within three years the location details "shall be part of call record for all mobile calls".

Some of the industry members have said although they are in talks with various vendors, there are conflicting views even among them. They have conveyed that dates are also too near to be practical for desired accuracies.

The industry is discussing the matter with the Telecom Department and MHA on the requirement of location-based call detail records and accuracy with respect to technical and commercial feasibility and "alternative solutions" and some conclusion would be reached, the sources said.