AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 9660 - Auditing Aadhaar

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 27, 2016

9660 - Auditing Aadhaar - Business Standard

Auditing Aadhaar

Need open deliberation on systems to avoid misuse

Business Standard Editorial Comment | New Delhi

March 24, 2016 Last Updated at 21:42 IST

Now that a law is being put in place to validate the Aadhaar programme, the focus must shift to the rules which will be framed under it to work the system. It has to be ensured that these rules reflect the spirit and content of the new law. In scrutinising the rules, three primary issues will have to be kept in mind. One is the assurances given to protect the privacy of individuals, so that data relating to their identity are not misused or fall into the wrong hands. The Aadhaar authority will obtain individuals' consent for sharing the data while carrying out fresh registration. It is interesting to speculate if an individual can give consent for her identity data to be shared with ministries distributing subsidies for things like food and kerosene, but not the home ministry whose job it is to identify potential security threats. Further, can the Aadhaar authorities tell a ministry that it can use the data itself but not pass them on to another ministry? As is clear from what the head of Aadhaar has told this newspaper, a suitable mechanism for auditing the operations of Aadhaar to track when and for what purpose its data are shared with others is necessary. This should not be seen as paranoia, but as trying to make sure that when a new system is being set up, it is done the right way.

The second issue is authentication. For Aadhaar to succeed in transferring benefits to the deserving poor, the primary concern must be to ensure that people who are illiterate and in far-flung areas should not be left out because they are unable to participate in a technical process. What happens when there is no electricity or internet connectivity in a truly remote area?

Currently a ration shop owner in such a place can look at a ration card and deliver. But what happens when authentication via Aadhaar fails because of lack of connectivity? The head of Aadhaar has told this newspaper that a technology option that can be examined is the use of a "one-time password" received over a cellphone (the national network coverage is now extensive). This very usefully takes forward meeting the authentication challenge for all. Then, of course, there is the physical Aadhaar card which should be useful in case all else fails in ensuring authentication. Today's technology frontier offers one other option. If a Wi-Fi network covers the entire country, then using a data connection to secure authentication will not be a hurdle anywhere.

The third issue to sort out is about the Aadhaar authorities getting paid for the use of the process or data by private players. Microfinance organisations, for example, prefer to lend only to people with two identifications, one of them being Aadhaar. Can an individual ask for a share of the revenue that Aadhaar earns by allowing use of her individual data? Even more interestingly, can the Aadhaar authorities charge a fee from private developers of apps which seek to extract value from the Aadhaar data base? These open questions must be deliberated upon openly and transparently by the authorities concerned even as the operational details for implementing Aadhaar under a new legislative framework are finalised.