AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 11293 - Aadhaar leaks worrisome, but more threats are emerging

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

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

11293 - Aadhaar leaks worrisome, but more threats are emerging - New Bytes

Aadhaar leaks worrisome, but more threats are emerging

08 May 2017 | By Anish Chakraborty

Aadhaar leaks are troubling, but what about the daily trickle?

While the response to the introduction of Aadhaar has been majorly positive, in the recent light of leaks, it has ushered in intense skepticism against it.

The idea of losing one's personal data may raise eyebrows but this is not a black and white comparison since people share data to organizations that are not even based in the country.

How? Read to find out.

08 May 2017: Aadhaar leaks are troubling, but what about the daily trickle?

Online shopping: Your online shopping destination

When someone is shopping on the e-commerce platforms they are sharing two important information with them. First is the phone number and second, the address, which is usually of the user's home or workplace.

Along with this people have been sharing their shopping patterns, frequency of buying products, all of which are being fed into an algorithm to give shoppers "suggested" contents for perusal.

Amazon: Even giants fail to protect themselves

Before you smugly refute by saying this is harmless; this April a major scam was discovered in Amazon, where hackers broke into the sellers' accounts using email and password credentials to commit frauds of millions.

Amazon is one of the biggest e-commerce platforms out there and it's a given that they don't take security lightly but still this incident took place.

WhatsApp: You don't need to be a genius to hack someone

One of the most popular messaging apps that are used on an everyday basis is WhatsApp and it is comforting to know that it has an end-to-end encryption running.

However, recently hackers in India have started making use of Security Verification Code feature to hack into a person's WhatsApp account and siphoning all the information to later use it for blackmailing purposes.

Facebook: There is enough information available to get you into trouble

Every time you divulge details on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media platforms, chances are, you might get hacked and this information could get leaked outside.

Even if it doesn't, Facebook uses this information to give advertisers on its platform, an insight on what you like so that they can cater things accordingly.

Considering the amount of information people make available, it's scary.

Google & Yahoo: Even the basics are not doing well

Yahoo was at its pinnacle, but when it was discovered that the data of millions of users have become public due to a major hacking attack on their mail servers, the firm's backbone broke.

One can literally write a novella titled "Google scams, spams and hacks" and lately a Google docs scam, which gives hackers access to your Gmail accounts, is also doing rounds.

Cyber crimes: Your enemy is already here

Cyber threats are rampant these days but it is unfair to peg things on a government, which is at least going to have liability, if something goes amiss.

You don't share your credit information in Aadhaar; the information you give can be easily acquired with some data mining and if someone wants to misuse iris and fingerprints, they need you, not prints.

Privacy Act: Privacy Act, the only safeguard in troubling times

Under no circumstances should one be less concerned about their data security and it's a welcoming sign that there has been an increase in awareness among Indian citizens.

But instead of playing the blame game, Indians should ask for a Privacy Act that will safeguard their interests from both the government and private players' misuse.

That is the need of the hour.