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, March 6, 2016

9383 - The Future Of Secure Technology Lies in the Eyes - Tech Story


Guest February 21, 2016


In India, most of the biometric methods used for security systems are outdated. Voice, fingerprint and facial recognition methods are easy to fake and have very low accuracy rate compared to iris recognition technology. Right from GoI (Aadhaar enabled services – AeBAS, AePS, AePDS, eGovernance, Border Security), Resident to Corporate sectors (BFSI, Logistics, Retails, Airports) this technology has a humongous market.

Practically no human can have the same iris pattern what so ever. Speaking in terms of the software, false rejection rate (FRR) of the iris recognition technology is 1: 15,00,000, finger print – 1: 10,000, Apple touch pad – 1: 50000, which means the chances of error are 1 in 1.5 million.

With AADHAAR, India is the only country with the largest biometric database available. No other country has adopted the biometric technology the way India has. Adoption and acceptance of this technology has been on the rise as of now. Even the new government offices have introduced AADHAAR enabled biometric attendance systems (AeBAS) to capture attendance. Even at fair price shops (AePDS) the verification of the individual is done based on AADHAAR, which ensures that the right person is getting the right benefits.

Biomatiques provides the benefits of “Who You Are” (Iris – no faux authentication) against “What You Have” (Cards, Badges, Keys – Lost or stolen, Shared, Can be duplicated, Buddy Punching) and “What You Know” (Can be forgotten, shared, many passwords are easy to guess, buddy punching). 

Companies that spend time and money creating password security strategies are largely wasting their time, because one in three employees is writing down passwords regardless of password policies. It’s like leaving the key under the mat or in the flower box. Companies looking to ensure security should look beyond passwords to other authentication strategies.
In Private sectors this technology can be used in private banks and insurance companies to issue an account number or a policy in a much shorter time. So ideally to open a bank account and to get the account number, it can take up to two week‘s time, but after getting the iris enrolled to AADHAAR, getting an account opened and getting the account number will be much easy. Similarly for insurance companies it is easy to issue a policy, once an individual is verified through his or her iris he is insured from that very moment itself. So banking and finance is another big market. Similarly, in telecom market, to get a new connection there is a waiting period involved. Plus the verification process is also tedious. This can be further reduced to just a few minutes with spot iris verification technique.
Data centers which keep secure data which are at a high risk of security breach, research and science centers where individuals are required to wear gloves and masks and other protective equipment, paint factories where workers have paint on their fingers most of the times are some other places where the technology can be useful.

The technology can be used in cars and bikes to get keyless access. The car will not start unless the owner’s iris is scanned and verified. This will help in reducing theft of cars significantly. Further it can be used to enhance and customize the driving experience. Once inside the car, if the car recognizes you, it will adjust the steering, the seat and the rear view mirror according to your preference automatically, plus it will also play your favorite music. Even for young drivers likewho have just passed their driving test in their teenage, if you wish you can monitor their driving and even set speed limits. When it comes to insurance by monitoring the driver’s driving skills, companies can decide premiums for drivers depending on their driving skills.

A household consumer can mount the iris scanner outside his door and have keyless entry or even connect it to his personal computer or android phone and use it as an additional measure of security. It can also be used in offices and schools to capture attendance accurately negating the nuisance of proxy attendance. The technology can also be synced with debit and credit cards. Along with just PIN the card won’t work unless iris is verified. Every digital or online payment will be connected to AADHAAR database. The biggest market is the government itself because there are a lot of services offered by the government like EPDS, AEPS and rural employment schemes.
Currently we are a startup company, based out in Surat. Our manufacturing capacity is 2 lakh units of iris scanners yearly and we promises to deliver tailored products and services to exceed their clients’ expectations and increasing their profitability and efficiency to provide identity assurance for using our biometric identity solutions. Biomatiques as a company has recognized this business opportunity and is ready to encash the same by bringing the state-of-art-technology with total flexibility of user-friendliness to meet the challenges.
The pressures on today’s C-Level executive’s to have secure business systems, are ever increasing with the rapidly changing computing landscape in making passwords and other legacy authentication methods obsolete and why biometrics is gaining traction as the preferred choice of authentication of users and devices for commercial as well as enterprise use-cases.
One area where security can be improved is in strong authentication of human & devices, which is interacting with the various high-end security technologies where biometrics authentication find greater applicability today includes Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) suites, Identity and Access Management (IAM), and Internet of Things.
This need comes from security-conscious consumers, employees, and more importantly, institutions such as banks, finance & insurance (BFSI), retailers, and other tradespersons and employers, who are uptight to prevent financial frauds and vulnerabilities, privacy abuses, and theft of corporate / users’ personal information, which can be addressed through use of biometrics authentications solutions having security portfolio and products that helps in controlling access to enterprise resources with greater accuracy, efficiency and user-convenience in a distributed environment displacing traditional detection tools.

The increasing significance of digital identity has taken the process of authentication to a level where the concerns for strong identification can best be addressed only through the use of biometrics. Although the opportunity for revenue associated with deployment of every biometric modality is becoming evident, the one which looks most promising is the Iris Recognition Technology.

The factors which are catapulting this technology to the forefront of biometrics applications are its ease of use and being independent of environmental conditions. Iris recognition, a biometric, provides one of the most secure methods of authentication and identification thanks to the unique characteristics of the iris.

However, not every player in this segment is able to comprehend the importance of this biometric modality in the way Biomatiques Identification Solutions Pvt. Ltd. does.
Our technology goes well with the “Make InIndia” initiative of GoI. Thus, we bring the heritage of Indian software superiority to the world. Where internationally there are 12 companies already in the global market we are the only Indian company. Our products were designed after keeping in mind the Indian demography. In India, nearly 70% population belongs to farmers and laborer class and the remaining 30 per cent is the office class category. Very few people know about the technology, so to introduce a simple, easy to understand and operate product was the main challenge. Secondly, India is a cost effective nation and the Indian consumer believes in value for money. Thirdly, India has a different topology across. So over every 100 kilometers, people change, the climatic conditions change, their lifestyle changes, even knowledge and education levels change. Understanding this is very essential. Hence the way the people will adapt to the product will also change depending on region to region.

In terms of price, Biomatiques offers the technology at a cost effective rate compared to other companies. The actual market price is INR 9999/-, however we are offering it at a promotional price of INR 4500/-. Other companies on the other hand won’t be selling their products for anything less than INR 15000. Moreover manufacturers from overseas only have their vendors in India who lack knowledge about the product in terms of integration or providing technical support for that matter. While Biomatiques has their own R&D and support team, hence reaching out for integration or technical support is much easier. In short you are getting a product which is 3 times lesser the price and you also get end to end solution with local maintenance and support.

IRIS recognition technology holds the highest CAGR due to highest accuracy levels. A study by Ernst & Young says that the Indian biometric market will grow to 748 million USD before 2018. Compounded annual growth for biometric market will be somewhere around 27 % globally 47% for India and that’s purely because Indian government has adapted to the biometric modality. A study by Gartner says by 2020, new biometric methods will displace passwords and fingerprints for access to endpoint devices across 80% of the market..

About The Author:

This article has been contributed by Tamaal Roy, CEO –Biomatiques Identification Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Biomatiques Identification Solutions Pvt. Ltd. has introduced the revolutionary Iris Recognition Technology in India. Established in June 2012, Biomatiques is the first Indian manufacturing company to receive the STQC certification from the STQC Directorate, Department of Information Technology, New Delhi. Headquartered in Surat, Gujarat, Biomatiques has a team of highly trained engineers and managers who are engaged with many local and international firms to provide sales and OEM support to both – clients and business partners.