AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 5610 - Security risk? Maintenance of Aadhaar data in the hands of a private company in Kerala

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

Friday, June 27, 2014

5610 - Security risk? Maintenance of Aadhaar data in the hands of a private company in Kerala - Medianama

Security risk? Maintenance of Aadhaar data in the hands of a private company in Kerala

By NT Balanarayan on Jun 17th, 2014 | Post a Comment Email Email anonymous tip off

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aadhaarlogoAadhaar information collected from people in Kerala has been handed over to a private company, reports Malayala Manorama.

According to the report, Keltron, the Kerala government owned IT company allegedly sub-contracted the rights to store Aadhaar data to a private company for Rs 70 lakhs. Note that four state governments including Kerala were given the right to hold on to the Aadhaar data, apart from maintaining that data at UIDAI data centres. The private company was given sub-contract to maintain this server. The software used for storing this data is also allegedly under the control of this private company, which is also in charge of maintaining the servers at Thiruvananthapuram TechnoPark that holds data related to the state government.

Keltron was appointed as a Total Solutions Provider (TSP) in 2011 as part of selecting agencies for collecting Aadhaar data. As per the contract, the company was also supposed to appoint ten people for Aadhaar software development and management.

According to the publication, Keltron had also signed an Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to ensure that the information would not be shared with third-parties. The contract with the private company by Keltron is reportedly in violation of this NDA.

Medianama take

There are several measures in place to ensure safety of Aadhaar data: For one, it is encrypted and then there are limits on the number of queries that can be made by an individual. For example, you can’t access data of more than ten people with a query, which essentially prevents scraping of Aadhaar data. Even with such steps, having direct physical access to the data brings up new risks.

There is no way to ensure that this data won’t be leaked by one employee from the private company? What is the guarantee that this data won’t then be integrated with other personal information like this election database scraped by a marketing firm? How do we know that this data won’t be used to spy on us? All these risks are there, but they are moot points. Since there was always the risk of someone within UIDAI using the same information and leaking it as much as an employee in a private company.

Though well intentioned, the whole concept of Aadhaar and UID in itself were full of privacy risks. The only reason a lot of people got the id was because they needed LPG subsidies and not because they needed another ID card. If that doesn’t prove the failure of the concept, what does? What’s worse is that it is not possible for an individual to remove Aadhaar data from the database. A lot of people have been mulling that option ever since the Supreme Court ruled that Aadhaar card cannot be tied to any government welfare schemes.

BJP had said in the past that NPR data should be used for welfare schemes, but do note that NPR information will be used in NATGRID, the government’s new intelligence gathering project. While the government discontinued the cabinet committee on UIDAI and handed over the charge to Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, its currently not clear on whether they are looking to scrap the Aadhaar project and UIDAI or not.

Last November, RBI had started a pilot for using Aadhaar-based biometric data for authenticating card transactions at point-of-sale units. However, after facing some technical issues, this project was put on hold last month.