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, September 10, 2017

11997 - Aadhaar Articles Dated 6th September 2017



Economic Times
NEW DELHI: Public sector and private banks have got a month's extension to establish Aadhaar enrolment centres within their premises. The Unique ...





The Atlantic
The program, known as Aadhaar, has collected the names, addresses, phone numbers—and perhaps more significantly, fingerprints, photographs, ...





Biometric Update
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has given banks until the end of the month to open Aadhaar enrollment centers in 10 percent of ...





Times of India
Ahmedabad: The road transport department has in an order announced that Aadhaar card will now be considered as a valid additional document for ...





Firstpost
The hearing will be by the original bench which was hearing the challenge to Aadhaar scheme in the light of a fundamental right of privacy, unless the ...





Swarajya
As a hypothetical case study, let us consider the Aadhaar card and ways in which the ecosystem could be improved. As mentioned earlier ...





Times Now
As most are aware, the Centre has made the Aadhaar compulsory for students of government schools if they wish to avail of government benefits like ...





Financial Express
“Compulsory Aadhaar seeding has made fake ration cards redundant,” Prasad said. The Haryana government has also introduced 'portability' of ...





Gizbot
HP Inc. India today has introduced a range of 'Made for India' devices to help digital delivery of services and benefits - in line with the Government's ...





Bangalore Mirror
We are in the process of getting Aadhaar cards for all inmates. However, the application of Somashekar was rejected stating that an Aadhaar card ...





Free Press Journal
The government has initiated a major reform initiative of disbursing scholarship through Aadhaar based DBT, which entails targeted delivery of ...





Mid-Day
Don't have an Aadhaar card and voter ID? Then, no admission for you in K C Law College. But wait, this just in: the college has already done a ...





India New England
There are little to no protections on how Aadhaar data is used, and certainly no meaningful user consent. Individual privacy and security cannot be ...





E-Pao.net
Imphal, September 05 2017: SBI has in a statement informed that it will hold special Aadhaar and Mobile seeding camps on Sept 7 and 8 in all its ...





Deccan Herald
The petitioner also submitted that the college authorities failed to produce any regulation which made possession of an Aadhaar card or number ...





Light Reading
Aadhaar-based subscriber onboarding: Possibly the biggest innovation in India has been an overhaul of the subscriber onboarding process.





Pakistan Observer
Now coming to Aadhaar: it is just another political card which is troubling the common man to no extent. We are forcibly made to link our Aadhaar card ...







Forbes
India's Aadhaar project, which provides biometric IDs to about 1.2 billion citizens for use in banking and social services, stores 40 petabytes of data ...





The New Indian Express
Living with her daughter's family now, Devaki hadn't used her husband's smart card which was linked to his Aadhaar. On going through her SMS inbox ...





Livemint
Farmers have to fill up a questionnaire mentioning their personal details like Aadhaar and bank account numbers to help the government establish ...





The Indian Express
He will have to give his Aadhaar details too,” said a senior officer. The security amount will be refundable. The Chandigarh Smart City Company ...





Times of India
According to Nancy, her purse contained Rs 600, PAN, Aadhaar, voter and ATM cards. Asha, a resident of Sector 15, said a man on a motorcycle ...





BW Businessworld
In India, we are using Aadhaar based real time authentication which includes both Mobile One Time Password (OTP) based authentication and also ...