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, February 22, 2015

7412 - Digital Locker: An idea whose time has come

By Sameer Sachdeva | sameer.sachdeva@9dot9.in|
18th February 2015


Citizens to get 1 GB of free space to store documents 

Imagine while applying for a job you don’t have to give attested photocopies of your certificates to your new employer, but just a link on the internet where your certificates are stored. This may sound to be a futuristic concept, but the idea for the digital locker is afloat and a beta version has already been implemented. The key issues that will be resolved by the digital locker is that it will reduce administrative overheads as the government agencies no longer need to store documents in physical form. The citizens do not need to submit multiple physical copies of the documents and there will be lesser challenges in verifying the authenticity of the documents.  The digital locker is an online repository where a user can store and share his certificates issued by private and government agencies. The department of electronics and information technology (DeitY),  has launched the beta version of a digital locker where such documents can be stored. Currently the individuals are given about 10 MB of space which is expected to increase till 1 GB. The storage space will be provided on cloud hosted by National Informatics Centre and the software is being developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).  The key purpose of the digital locker is to minimize the resubmission of physical documents and provide a framework where authenticated certificates can reside thereby minimizing fraud.   The documents can be self attested by the individuals using digital signatures, and even government agencies can store their documents on this network. The beta version of the digital locker is currently hosted at www.digitallocker.gov.in which in a way is a cloud- based file sharing service. Citizens will be able to access their digital lockers using their Aadhaar number and mobile number. 

 Citizens can store certificates like degrees, PAN Card, Aadhaar, BPL certificate, passport etc.   In order to use the beta version of the digital locker a user has to create an account using his Aadhaar / UID number. The user has to share his mobile number through which a One Time Password (OTP) is sent which in-turn will give access to the digital locker. Once signed in the Digital Locker captures the user profile details from the Aadhaar database. Once a user uploads his documents in the electronic format, he will be able to share the same online with a registered agency / department of government. One can also see the list of agencies issuing e-documents and also those which have accessed one’s documents. A user can upload files up to 1 MB in PDF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP and GIF formats from the local machine to the digital locker. The government is currently seeking input on the beta version of a digital locker through the mygov.in website.  - See more at: http://www.igovernment.in/editorial/1002221/digital-locker-an-idea-whose-time-has-come#sthash.86EKZyi7.dpuf
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