AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 12094 - Google Tez: Company Says It Doesn't Store Aadhaar Details, Addresses Privacy Concerns

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, September 21, 2017

12094 - Google Tez: Company Says It Doesn't Store Aadhaar Details, Addresses Privacy Concerns - NDTV

Google Tez: Company Says It Doesn't Store Aadhaar Details, Addresses Privacy Concerns

Manish Singh, 19 September 2017

HIGHLIGHTS

Google has clarified that its Tez app doesn't store Aadhaar information
Tez doesn't even require you to provide your Aadhaar information anywhere
The company has addressed other privacy concerns as well

Google has categorically dismissed all the privacy concerns users shared with the company's Tez payments app, noting in particular that it is not storing any users' Aadhaar information.

Ahead of the Google Tez launch conference on Monday, the digital payments app became available to download via Google Play and the App Store in India. Since then, a reference to Aadhaar in the Google Tez app's terms of service started circulating on social media.

In the terms of service of Tez app, Google noted that any user who receives money on Tez app gives the company consent to allow the sender to store a host of information including bank account number and Aadhaar number for the purpose of sending the payments.

Does Tez store Aadhaar information?

In a televised interview with NDTV's Vikram Chandra on Monday, Google's Caesar Sengupta clarified that neither Google nor any user can store the Aadhaar information. He said the company made reference of Aadhaar in the terms of service as that feature could be added in the future. But as of today, it's not there.

"There is a feature called PayByAadhaar in UPI. What it does is, if you know somebody's Aadhaar number, you can send them money," Sengupta explained. "This is an optional feature in UPI and there is a huge lack of clarity around legal and regulatory frameworks on how to use it. So we choose not to use it. Right now we don't take Aadhaar number, we don't store it, we don't do anything with it."

Google is at present trying to get clarity on how the frameworks on how to use PayByAadhaar. If it is satisfied and thinks that it adds user value, it may introduce it in the future. If it does introduce PayByAadhaar, which could be made mandatory by NPCI in the future, it will inform the customers about it.

The company has also since updated the terms of service for Tez, to remove reference to Aadhaar. There, the company says, "Tez does not support the Pay to Aadhaar feature, though it may do so in the future with notice to you and in accordance with applicable laws."

No Custom VPA in Google Tez

UPI uses virtual payment address (VPA), which is a much simpler identification number to quickly allow a customer to send money to one another. So for instance, instead of a 12-digit bank account of a user, a person will only have to remember the short VPA address which could look like apple@okicici, for instance. Users can also pick their own custom VPAs. If you have accounts with multiple banks, you will have multiple VPAs.

Google Tez doesn't offer the ability to create a custom virtual payment address, and the limitation surprised many. Diana Layfield, VP of Google's Next Billion Users, said the app doesn't offer the ability to allow VPAs because only banks have been offered that functionality.

Microphone access in Google Tez

Some users also expressed concerned when they found that Tez app required access to microphone. At the press conference, Sengupta said microphone is being used to enable Cash Mode feature, which allows customers to send money to people around them without even knowing their phone number or any other details.

Cash Mode uses Audio QR (AQR), a proprietary technology Google has built, which uses ultrasonic sound waves to communicate. So that's why Tez asks for access to microphone, Sengupta said.