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, August 8, 2013

4451 - Aadhaar or cards: UIDAI and banks disagree on use of biometric authentication at ATMs - Times of India

Sugata Ghosh, ET Bureau | Jul 29, 2013, 11.11AM IST

MUMBAI: Will banks have to spend a fortune to give customers the choice of either putting their finger prints or swiping plastic cards to withdraw money from ATMs and pay for purchases? 

Not really, says the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the agency that issues the 12-digit Aadhaar numbers and is pushing for biometric authentication for credit card and ATM transactions. But bankers disagree. Besides the travails and risks of a new technology, upgrading each and every automated teller machine and point of sale terminal at thousands of merchant outlets will not come cheap, they argue. 

Indeed, 'cost' is emerging as one of the issues in the brewing debate - 'Aadhaar or plastic cards'. According to a source familiar with the subject, an RBI-constituted panel has pegged the cost of banks' readiness for Aadhaar at 4,259 crore compared with 3,556 crore the banking industry has to spend to upgrade machines to match a different technology they think lowers the risk of card frauds. 

Aadhaar or cards: UIDAI and banks disagree on use of biometric authentication at ATMs It's learnt that the UIDAI nominee on the panel is likely to issue a dissent note on the estimates the agency believes is significantly higher than what banks' migration to Aadhaar would cost. 

About a fortnight ago, the findings of the report were shared by Pulak Kumar Sinha, the SBI general manager who heads the panel, at a luncheon meeting with RBI Deputy Governor HR Khan. Other members of the working group were also present at the meeting. 

Cost the only point of conflict 

According to a UIDAI spokesman, other than cost estimates, there is no other point on which UIDAI or any other member is in disagreement. 

Responding to ET's queries, Ashok Pal Singh, deputy director general, UIDAI, said nowhere does the report suggest that Aadhaar, in its current shape and form, is not recommended for large-scale adoption for the existing card base as an additional factor of authentication. 

"If need be, UIDAI will put a dissenting note by way of a disclaimer on the costing...I repeat that on no other point is UIDAI or any other member in disagreement with the rest of the draft report," he said. 

Asked whether the working group has voiced concerns on account of the fact that if Aadhaar of a cardholder is compromised, the cardholder's identity gets compromised for life, the UIDAI official said the report, which should be in public domain shortly, has not made any such observation. 

The Reserve bank spokesperson did not respond to ET's email query. 

UIDAI is of the view that Aadhar-based payment technology can be cost effective and beneficial as it will take electronic payments to the masses. "What is this great upgradation cost we are seized about? The comparison is between cost of deploying a technology that has peaked (chip and pin) versus a technology making its debut (Aadhaar-based biometric authentication) and yet to acquire economies of scale... The number of PoS terminals in the country is a pittance. A card does not get accepted beyond two dozen major cities. Does anyone seriously believe the aam aadmi will transact with a chip and pin card? Aadhaar uses a light PoS with no inbuilt intelligence as authentication takes place back end and the device is only a communication channel as against a device that must decode and read a chip. Even common sense will defy an assertion that the former will require a heavier and more expensive device," said Singh. 

Some of the credit card heads of banks ET spoke to said there was a distinct possibility that RBI would ask banks to gradually roll out Aadhaar-based biometric authentication as an additional authentication for card transactions. "RBI may not mandate banks immediately, but may nonetheless ask them to upgrade the technology. This is happening at a time banks are issuing credit and debit cards that are based on EMV technology," said a banker. 


In EMV cards, the card and CVC numbers are encrypted. And, unlike the EMV or the conventional magnetic stripe technology where cards have to be swiped, a biometric authentication involves the bank's ATM or PoS reading the fingerprints and matching them with the fingerprint records aggregated by authorised authentication service agents like VISA, National Payments Cop or Vodafone before the transaction is cleared.