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

Thursday, April 14, 2016

9846 - Aadhaar Card Giving Rise To Increasing Online Frauds In India; Should Mobile Wallets Encourage Its Usage?-Trak.In



As of August, 2015, Indian Govt. has spend close to Rs 6000 crore to issue Aadhaar cards for 90 crore Indians. But it seems that a new breed of online fraudsters are fostering on the vulnerabilities of this identification tool, and siphoning off the hard earned money via illegal methods.

Considering that majority of these new Aadhaar card holders are new, first time bankers, they are falling easily for these tactics, and losing their money.

In fact, as per a report published by TOI, it was revealed that Hyderabad alone is getting 20 cases a day, related to Aadhaar card frauds. 40-50% of those who are scammed, are not even aware of this new cheating mode.

Cyberabad police’s Cyber Wing inspector Md Riyaz said, “We suspect that they could be either former or serving call centre employees. Using the confidential details of customers, money is siphoned off from the accounts of the victims,”

The Modus Operandi
As the investigative officials have discovered, there are two different ways these fraudsters are attacking Aadhaar card holders.

In the first case, a tele-caller will call you up with this script: “Hello, sir/madam, the bank has decided to link your Aadhaar number with debit card for better customer service.”
Gullible customers will happily provide them with the details they are asking; and very smartly, the fraudsters will extract details of CVV number and expiry dates (which are only known to the customer).

Immediately, these fraudsters will generate an OTP, which is received by the victim instantly. Now, the OTP will act as a further trust factor for the victim (especially the ones who have never done OTP based transactions), and they will share that as well. They think that the OTP will be used for linking their bank accounts with Aadhaar card.

Once OTP is generated and shared, the fraudsters use various ecommerce portals to purchase as many products as that 5 to 15 minute window of OTP validation provides. By the time the victims understand this, his/her bank account is debited with thousands of rupees.
The other way to trick bank customers is to ask their alternate number; and an OTP is sent to that in order to make the victim believe that indeed their bank accounts and Aadhar card is being linked.

Should Mobile Wallets Use Aadhaar Card As KYC Tool?
Freecharge has recently announced that they will be using Aadhaar cards as primary KYC (Know Your Customer) tool to validate and authenticate first time users. In fact, as an incentive, Aadhaar Card enabled wallets can have balance upto Rs 1 lakh, instead of Rs 10,000 for non-Aadhaar Card holders. Aadhaar Card holders would also be provided with door-step KYC verification by Freecharge.
Other mobile wallets such as Paytm and Oxigen have been using Aadhar card based verification since long.
In view of the recent frauds done on Aadhaar Card users, it may be advisable that mobile wallets in India display caution, while encouraging Aadhaar card usage. Although it’s not Aadhaar card which is in fault; but it’s the ignorance and vulnerability of the customers due to less information and awareness, which leads to the frauds and scams.
The customers, most of whom are first time bank and Internet users, need more training, information and awareness about the digital payment structure, and methods.
Here are some more instances of Aadhaar card frauds: Vadodara scam, Pension fraud, Another case in Hyderabad, Punjab fraud.
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