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, February 13, 2015

7359 - Aadhaar Linked Digital Locker Goes Live. Here Is How To Securely Store Documents Online! - Trac.In

Aadhaar Linked Digital Locker Goes Live. Here Is How To Securely Store Documents Online!

Posted by: Ambika Choudhary Mahajan in Internet February 12, 2015


Having issued Aadhaar cards to a majority of the Indian population, the Indian government now wants to make the best use of them.

Back in November 2014, the government had proposed a ‘Digital locker’ concept. The locker, it was proposed, would be linked to the Aadhaar card of citizens and would then enable them to store all their government issued documents (right from birth certificate to degrees) on the cloud storage system. 

The documents thus stored in the digital format can be accessed by the users of the facility by using their Aadhaar numbers.
The department of electronics and information technology has now rolled out a beta version of the ‘digital locker’ which is being labeled as one of the most ambitious aspects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India programme.

To use the digital locker, users need to create an account at its website using their Aadhaar card, or unique identification (UID), number.

The ultimate aim of the digital locker scheme is to place all educational, medical, passport and PAN card details of every Indian in a digital form over a cloud storage system so that he can access them all from anywhere in the world without having to carry all the documents physically.

The service has been rolled out only in the beta version so far and before the government goes ahead with the final implementation of it, they hope to invite public feedback on the concept and its implementation. The department of electronics and information technology (DeitY) has invited comments from users on the government’s idea crowdsourcing platform myGov.in.

Doubts had been raised about the security of the documents thus stored but R.S. Sharma, secretary, department of electronics and IT, assures that the system is totally safe.

A senior C-DAC official who has been involved in carrying the project further said that the security concerns should not be a hindrance. Assuring that the safety option features data encryption of the highest level, there would be no threat to the confidentiality or the safety of the data so stored. The data will be protected by a One-Time Password, which will be sent to the user’s mobile via an sms every time he tries to log in to his digital locker, much in the same manner as an online banking transaction at present. There is no issue of government scrutiny because the certificates stored are issued by the government departments, he assured.

The Maharashtra government has taken the lead in this regard and has introduced the “Maha Digital Locker”. Anyone in the state of Maharashtra who has an Aadhar card can use the e-locker facility by logging in on elocker.maharashtra.gov.in.
Whenever a person will apply for a document or a certificate at any SETU (project) office, a copy of it will be uploaded by the Gram Panchayat, Tehsil or collectorate office, said Virendra Singh, Director of IT department of the State Secretariat.
How To Use Digital Locker

You can start using the digital locker immediately – First login to their site http://digitallocker.gov.in/. It will ask you for Aadhaar number along with captcha. Once you enter the number, your registered mobile number and email ID will get a One Time Password.


Enter the OTP and you can see following dashboard, through which you will be able to upload your documents. You can choose from the list of documents through the drop-down menu available.


We successfully uploaded our PAN card. Interestingly, you can directly share your documents from your to any email address that you want. You can also e-sign the uploaded document which will in future be used as official digital signature on documents.



Over all, we think it is a great move to introduce Digital locker. It is sure to help millions of Indians to keep all their documents safe.

Restriction of 10mb for All Documents
The biggest negative aspect of Digital locker is that it offer only 10mb space for all your documents. This is too limiting and will be difficult to accommodate all documents in such less space.

Security
The Digital locker uses the same security that all banks use for internet banking. They use your registered mobile number and email address to send you OTP. That is the only way you can gain access to digital locker.

No Integration Between Central Govt & State Govt Digital Locker

It is not clear how the State Govt and Central Govt digital lockers will integrate with each other. When we tried using the Digital locker rolled out by Central Govt, we were able to successfully upload our documents and certificates (see above screenshot, we have uploaded the PAN Card.). However, when we logged into Maharashtra Digital Locker system, the same uploaded certificates were not seen. We had to go through entire process all over again.


Maharashtra State Digital Locker system also has 10MB space limitation, but they have an extra layer of security, where they also ask for a PIN number in addition to OTP.

We will be testing out the system over next few days and get back to you with more details.


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