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

Thursday, May 24, 2012

2584 - UID Aadhaar: Making of a Totalitarian Indian Surveillance Society

UID Aadhaar: Making of a Totalitarian Indian Surveillance Society

The hallmark of a Police State is a compulsory National ID.[UID]


Edward Bernays in his famous book ‘Propaganda’ rightly said
 “…The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.”


Biometrics | UID : Turning a ‘Citizen’ into a ‘Subject’ : Usha Ramanathan









Practical RISKS of Aadhaar / UID project



1. HISTORY OF CENSUS AND THE FUTURE WITH UID
Watch this detailed and well documented documentary to know the history of Census and the will be future with RFID and UID.
One Mainframe to Rule them All – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dhiKlouSq8
IBM is the same company that came up with the punch cards for census that helped Hitler pull off the Holocaust and the same company creating RFID chips. Interestingly there are thousands of cases against IBM involvement in the Holocaust which never saw the light of day. The company that got the UID contract is also a front controlled by IBM.

2. EUGENICS | ETHNIC CLEANSING
Though Nilekani [having connections with the Yale University, a CIA front and the House of the deadly and notorious "Skull And Bones"] claims that the so-called, UID is a “mere number”, it can be used to do away with Religion, though it is a Fundamental Right.
The following two videos will give you a 30 minute crash course about the huge risk involved in having a centralized database of all people just like a prison database or earmarks in cattle farms. It has good explanation of Eugenics and how it was used in the history.
There are reports of people being murdered for their Identity cards which were also reportedly used in Rwanda for ethnic cleansing.
Mossad Agent killing Oz Tourists to steal their identity to use in fake Al-Qaeda operations
UID may aid communal targeting, says Aruna Roy

3. IMPLICATIONS OF THE CENSUS AND THE METHODS USED
Data collection, including fingerprinting, for the National Population Register has been launched alongside the 2011 Census exercise and under different statutes. This is no innocent data collection in a vacuum. Set amidst NATGRID and UID, it conjures Orwellian images of Big Brother.
Why Nandan Nilekani(UIDAI Chairman) could lose his job ?
Excerpt - He is head of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which is functioning without legislative approval either at the Centre or in the states and has signed contracts with US companies like L1 Identities Solution that works with US intelligence agencies.
An industry document titled ‘Homeland Security in India’ underlines the connection between UID number and National Intelligence Grid (NAGRID). It is public knowledge that NATGRID chief Capt. Raghu Raman, wishes to hand over ‘internal security’ of the country to the ‘commercial czars’ and recommends ‘private territorial armies’ to safeguard ‘corporate empires’.


4. MISUSE OF DATABASE
Commercial motive behind Aadhaar: VS
U.S. interest in Unique Identification Project
Intelligence agencies keen to tap data base

5. PRIVACY & CIVIL LIBERTIES

Does the UID project infringe on privacy?
Smart Cards for Surveillance
Surveillance Architecture, Radio Collar, RFID, PII & UID Number/Aadhaar

6. TURNING THE CONSTITUTION INTO A DEAD DOCUMENT

The UID Aadhaar Project Will Make Constitution Of India A Dead Document By S.G.Vombatkere
“Linked with surveillance in public places and with all people registered with the Aadhaar system, tracking every activity of any or every citizen will be merely a matter of money and technology. This will irreversibly change the relationship between the State and its people, confirming the State as the master when the Constitution of India envisages precisely the opposite.”



7. HIGH-COST | HIGH-RISK

One estimate of the cost to completely roll-out National IDs to all Indian residents above the age of
18 has been placed at [Rs] 150,000 crore (US$33.45 billion).
In this article you will read some history around this project and critical analysis.
Soon government will be able snoop on the personal savings bank and other accounts in the name of anti-terror measures using NAT-GRID

8. AADHAAR: ON A PLATFORM OF MYTHS

The Aadhaar project, just as its failed counterpart in the U.K., stands on a platform of myths. India needs a mass campaign to expose these myths.
Myth 1: Aadhaar number is not mandatory.

Myth 2: Aadhaar is just like the social security number (SSN) in the United States.
Myth 3: Identity theft can be eliminated using biometrics.


9. OPPOSITION TO UID FROM CITIZENS

“Even Prisoners’ Act provides that fingerprints be destroyed after acquittal. In uidai such data can be stored forever.”
 Gopal Krishna, UID Activist
Aadhar, A Few Basic Issues
Red flags raised over possible unique ID profiling fallouts
UK scraps National ID project; Will India’s UID face the same fate?
According to some experts, the least that needs to be done is that UIDAI should make a comprehensive case to justify why what was rejected in the UK is good for India
Documents Explaining What Has Happened To US
UID is an identity crisis in the making
Iraqi Biometric Identification System

10. UID BY STEALTH ?
Nilekani said the number will become “pervasive and ubiquitous” in future. “When you to get a passport, they will say where is your UID number, when you go to get a driving licence, they will say where is your UID number, when you go to pay tax, they will say where is your UID number, you go to open a bank account, they will say where is your UID number. Sooner or later you will have to get your UID number,” Nilekani said.
Oxigen, SBI in tie-up to provide banking solutions to unbanked
Govt to issue biometric PAN cards
Aadhaar is being touted as UNIVERSAL[Meaning Universal Identity Card,UID]. The 12-digit unique number given under Aadhaar will be universal and could be used for all practical purposes.

11. OBEDIENT CASHLESS SOCIETY

Cashless Society: India Implements First Biometric ID Program for all of its 1.2 Billion Residents

After the implementation of UID :

* What are the chances that you can get LPG without being given it to someone else for a day or two by the agency?
* What are the chances that all the PDS shops have UID verification devices?
* If all the PDS shops have UID verification devices what are the chances that the system works when someone wants to buy something?
* What are the chances that electricity outage, telephone/network outage block a person from getting the service?
* What are the chances that the service providers intentionally break the system down to deny the service?
* What are the chances that someone else avail the service in your name and you get trapped in cases which you cannot prove otherwise?
* Schools do collect information regarding religion, caste race, language; Banks collect income information and what are the chances that future generations won’t face another holocaust, forced sterilization or repeat another Rwanda?
* This list will go on based on how well your criminal brain works; but my point is there is nothing much you can expect out of this project other than surrendering your sovereignty and making the State, a more powerful Master.


Nick Clegg, UK’s deputy prime minister said in his speech in British Parliament,

“It is outrageous that decent, law-abiding people are regularly treated as if they have something to hide. It has to stop. So there will be no ID card scheme.”


Late Roger Needham, a British computer scientist, aptly said,
‘If you think IT is the solution to your problem, then you don’t understand IT, and you don’t understand your problem either.