AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 12201 - Aadhaar will successfully pass the test of privacy: Nandan Nilekani

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, November 2, 2017

12201 - Aadhaar will successfully pass the test of privacy: Nandan Nilekani - Live Mint

Aadhaar will successfully pass the test of privacy: Nandan Nilekani

Nandan Nilekani expresses confidence that the government’s unique-identity number Aadhaar scheme would be able to successfully pass the test of privacy

Lalit K. Jha

File photo. Nandan Nilekani said that from a policy perspective it has to be clear that nobody should be denied an entitlement due to lack of access to technology. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint

Washington: India is on a “very good wicket” on privacy in this age of digital technology, architect of the Aadhaar scheme Nandan Nilekani has said, expressing confidence that the government’s unique-identity number plan would be able to successfully pass the test of privacy.

The Aadhaar card scheme, which has enrolled more than 1 billion people, was launched by the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, and has been supported by the current government. Addressing an audience at an event organised by the Center for Global Development on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Nilekani said, “I think India is on a very good wicket on privacy”.

Thanks to Aadhaar many activists went to the Supreme Court and they claimed that it was a privacy violation, said the 62-year-old non-executive chairman of Infosys Ltd—India’s second largest software services firm. That challenge by activists, he said, led to even more existential question in India is privacy a fundamental right at all. The question went to a nine-judge Supreme Court bench and they gave “what I call one of the best judgements” in the Supreme Court history, he said, responding to a question on privacy and Aadhaar card.

“And they (judges) said, yes privacy is a fundamental right. However, the state can circumscribe that privacy for specific social goals,” he said, adding that they identified national security, prevention of crime prevention, protection of revenue and social welfare benefits as the four reasons.

Nilekani said that the judges said that circumscribing of privacy has to be based on three things. It has to be based on a law. It has to be based on the test of proportionality and reasonableness. “The court laid down an excellent framework. And at the same time they said that technology and digital technology are key enablers for social progress and innovation,” the architect of Aadhaar said.

Now that the judges have laid a framework, there would be a second bench of the court, which will test whether Aadhaar meets that framework. “We’re very confident that it will,” Nilekani said.

Responding to a question, Nilekani said that from a policy perspective “it has to be clear” that nobody should be denied an entitlement due to lack of access to technology. A good system would obviously have the ability to save if there’s no connectivity or environment does not work, one should give the overriding capability to the service provider. So, it is important to make sure that technology does not come as a hurdle in providing benefits to people. A combination of well-designed override with fraud analytics can solve these issues. “As people learn the system, they are going to do that,” he said.

According to Nilekani, there are many challenges that require a platform thinking as a public good. “It’s important that we recognise that such a category exists. If a particular service or product is offered through a commercial platform that’s great. Nobody’s saying no to that but there is a problem that only can be solved with societal platform for the public good. That is unavoidable,” he said.

Societal platforms, he said, is not about excluding market participants. Societal platforms, he argued, creates the level playing field and then market participants can operate on that. It’s entirely possible that the entire digital payments that are provided by a combination of public financial institutions and private banks. But the societal platform provides the rules of the game, he said. That is the role of society and government to provide the rules of the game. “That’s what this is all about. So think of this as one more way of enforcing the rules of the game,” Nilekani said. PTI

First Published: Sat, Oct 14 2017. 02 38 PM IST