AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 10423 - A cloud-based virtual storage DigiLocker

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 13, 2016

10423 - A cloud-based virtual storage DigiLocker - Deccan Chronicle

A cloud-based virtual storage DigiLocker

INDIATECHONLINE | ANAND PARTHASARATHY

Published

Sep 12, 2016, 10:00 am IST

Government’s Digilocker service, gives every Indian a virtual document archive.

A cloud-based virtual storage where every citizen can store important personal documents in digital form

Every new product or initiative needs a 'killer app' to kickstart it. It is over a year since the Prime Minister 'launched' the DigiLocker -- a cloud-based virtual storage where every citizen can store important personal documents in digital form. The actual roll-out took another nine months till April this year. Even then only pitifully small number of states -- Andhra Pradesh, Telengna, Kerala, Odisha and Delhi -- linked their e-district services to DigiLocker.

It is only last week, that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, integrated Driving licenses and Vehicle Registration Certificates DigiLocker. Now finally, the idea of digitizing one's key documents and storing them in the Cloud begins to make sense for most of us. Like PAN Card, Aadhaar number and Voter ID Card, the driving license has become a key element of personal identification beyond its obvious need when driving. Many of us carry photocopies of our RCwhen driving, preferring to store the original safely at home. Now you can upload driving license and RC to your Digilocker -- in fact if you have a DigiLocker account, a new document will be directly issued to your locker. When demanded, you can show authorities your documents on your mobile phone.

Creating your own DigiLocker is simple: Go to digilocker.gov.in and use your mobile phone number to get your locker. It makes sense to link your Aadhaar number to the locker, since it automatically uploads all the documents that you have linked to your Aadhaar card. You can also link other important personal documents -- birth or marriage certificates, school leaving certificates, degrees and diplomas, passports and visas. You get 1GB of free space.

For some years now, I have been storing my key personal documents in free cloud storage provided by Gmail (Google Drive), Windows Live (OneDrive) or YahooMail (a massive 1TB of storage through Dropbox). You never know when it will come in handy. I once landed in Singapore and found I had misplaced the paper visa I was carrying. But in that tech-savvy country I had no problem in entering: the officer at the immigration desk was happy to let me show him a scan of the visa, I had uploaded to my OneDrive and stamped my passport after verifying it.

Even if you are doing likewise with one or other free cloud storage services, it makes sense for Indians to sign up for Digilocker: Increasingly public services will be geared to read directly from your own personal locker and save you the hassle of carrying various ID and address proofs. New government docs s will be issued directly to your locker. This is a revolutionary step forward -- as demat or dematerializing stocks and share certificates was, 20 years ago.

We Indians have a canny sense of what is good for us. Already in its few months of operation, the DigiLocker has attracted 2.1 million users, who between them uploaded 2.5 million documents. This in spite of a wobbly experience at times ( as my homework for doing this story, I enrolled -- but found the system does not always allow me to access my locker. There seems to be a traffic jam after the announcement about driving license and RC book.) I'm guessing things will settle down -- and every one of us, can upload our precious document assets and be assured they are safe in Cyberia!

-IndiaTechOnline