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

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

8749 - National ID Month: 4 Biometric Countries - Find Biometrics

National ID Month: 4 Biometric Countries

Posted on September 24, 2015

National eID card programs are set to encompass half the world population in three years time, according to a report by Acuity Market Intelligence, and biometrics play a key role in said initiatives. September is National ID Month at FindBiometrics, in which we have been taking an in depth look at this proliferating global market that accounts for some of the largest biometric deployments in the world.

Of course, while the 2018 goalpost forecasted by Acuity requires the further spread of National ID programs, a great number of countries included in that figure already have undertaken biometric registration initiatives for their citizens. Here’s a look at four countries, their national ID programs, and how biometrics factor into them.

India



Perhaps the most ambitious national ID program in the world is the Aadhaar initiative undertaken by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The national registry contains biographic and biometric data on every enrolled citizen, and though participation is voluntary for most living in India, there are a great deal of benefits offered by Aadhaar including the nation’s generous universal healthcare scheme.

The biometrics used in Aadhaar are fingerprint, iris and face. Because of the sheer size of India, and due to the remote locations of some of its citizens who could most benefit from its perks, the enrollment process is taking advantage of a great deal of modern biometric technology. For instance: Green Bit’s STQC certified Dactyscan84c 10-prints Livescan technology, optimized for mass enrollment solutions.

Recently a biometric iris scanning facility was launched in Andra Pradesh for the Aadhaar-based distribution of pensions. Andra Pradesh will be using iris biometrics as a primary authentication method to issue Direct Benefit Transfer, and in order to do so it has employed the IriShield USB MK120U from IriTech – the first iris biometrics solution to be STQC certified for the Aadhaar national ID program.

Israel



Israel is currently in a pilot phase for its own incredibly ambitious biometric national ID card program. In June, the country’s national ID pilot phase was extended despite serious criticism regarding its effectiveness and ability to deliver actionable statistics.

Two hours after Interior Minister Silvan Shalom announced the nine month extension the program’s detractors released a report detailing the program’s shortcomings. In addition to not offering any metrics regarding the program’s efficacy in curbing identity fraud, the trial national ID program has also been criticized for embarrassing levels of defectiveness. Sixteen percent of the 91,000 ID cards being used at the Ben-Gurion Airport have been reported as faulty or inoperable and 430,000 biometric scans have been reported as defective.

Taking the report in stride, Shalom pointed to other countries in which national ID has been successfully implemented, citing the primary difficulty stemming from the Knesset State Control Committee simply needing more time to get acquainted with the program (hence the trial’s extension).

Afghanistan


Biometric national ID powered by Ideal Innovations, Inc. (I3) has been implemented in Afghanistan for international security reasons. The Afghanistan Ministry of the Interior, in a 2011 report from the FBI titled Mission Afghanistan, stated that it had planned to enroll 8 million citizens in its national ID program serving what one government official called “the betterment of the country.” Built to be compatible with the FBI’s own biometrics database, the primary goal of Afghanistan’s national ID project is to better understand the movements of the country’s population and uncover previously invisible terrorist threats.

Of course, additional benefits come along with biometric national ID, and in Afghanistan that is still true. Though the rollout of the biometric ID cards has been reported as hitting a few snags along the way, when it was first announced The Guardian pointed out that such a program could potentially address the nation’s history of rampant electoral corruption.

South Africa



Moving our focus to South Africa we find the enormous and successful national fingerprint database deployed by NEC Corporation. South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs began the Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS) in order to do away with paper systems in 21st century fashion (digitally). A key aspect of HANIS is NEC’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), which is able to store 50 million records and conduct 1:n matching procedures, boasting 99.9% accuracy.

While the usual national ID benefits were observed after the implementation, a white paper from NEC describing the project asserts that HANIS has had an even greater effect on South Africa. It is no secret that the nation’s diverse population of 48 million has been divided by language, race and culture on many occasions, but with the national ID program no matter what color or creed a person living in the country may be, they can all share one thing in common: they are definitively South African.
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Be sure to register for our National ID Month webinar, Biometrics, National ID and the Future of Global Identity. Stay posted to FindBiometrics throughout September as we continue this conversation with National ID Month. Take part in the discussion by following us on Twitter and tweeting with the hashtag #FBNational.
National ID Month is made possible by our sponsors  NEC Corporation of America and Green Bit Biometric Systems.
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