AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 12327 - Aadhaar data was shared with private companies, reveal papers

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, November 8, 2017

12327 - Aadhaar data was shared with private companies, reveal papers - TNN

Aadhaar data was shared with private companies, reveal papers

TNN | Nov 7, 2017, 14:21 IST

AIPUR: At a time when concerns are being raised over the security of Aadhaar data, TOI has learnt that the project's managing authority - the Unique Identification Development Authority of India (UIDAI) - had shared large samples of data with private companies for proof of concept (PoC) studies.

Documents with TOI reveal that the UIDAI had shared millions of identity records with at least two private companies between 2012 and 2013. One such revelation is in a letter (F No 4 (4)/57/199/2013-RoB) dated September 12, 2013, written by then UIDAI deputy director Sanjay Kumar to the head of Managed Service, HCL UIDAI. HCL had been hired by UIDAI as 'Managed Service Provider'.

"The competent authority has approved to share 1 million records for PoC of data quality tool to be done by your partners, ie, IxSight Technologies Pvt Ltd, Mumbai...in UIDAI premises in terms of clause 1 to 18 of non-disclosure agreement (NDA) dated 6 July, 2013...," the letter states.

Another correspondence, dated January 17, 2012, mentions an undisclosed amount of data given to Mumbai private company SAS Insitute (India) directly by the UIDAI for PoC studies. In the letter (no 4 (4)/57/2-11-RoB/862), the then UIDAI ADG writes, "The required software and hardware requirement as per PoC proposal has been made available."

Both letters approving the sharing of records were issued during UPA-II, when UIDAI was headed by Nandan Nilekani.

Though the data was shared under terms and conditions of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), experts said in case of a leak by these private companies, there was little the UIDAI could do except sue the company for breach of contract. They said at stake here is the privacy of an individual - held by the Supreme Court as a fundamental right - without a chance for corrective action. The Aadhaar Act also restricts sharing and use of data without the prior consent of the individual.

The UIDAI maintained that all necessary precautions were taken. "The said data 'shared' in 2013 for PoC studies was sanitised sample data created for the specific purpose and internal uses. The PoC study was done on a dedicated server of UIDAI at the UIDAI's data centre. It was configured standalone and was not on the network. All necessary precautions like external port disabling etc were strictly observed and monitored and the system was sanitised pre and post PoC activity. All such sample sanitised data was deleted after the study. There has been no sharing, transfer or handover of any original actual data whatsoever," the authority said.

UIDAI officials added that the sanitised data cannot be used for any other purposes and has never been reported misused.

"UIDAI, for its proper functioning, infrastructure development and knowledge innovation, keeps working on PoC studies but that never means sharing of data to anyone in an unsecured and non-sanitised manner," an official said.

However, legal researcher and scholar Usha Ramanathan felt that the UIDAI's explanation wasn't enough to allay fears. "When they say there have been no known breaches, that is saying nothing. How will we ever know unless there is some transparency?" she said.

"The UIDAI has worked on an outsourcing model from its inception and brought in private companies with whom they signed contracts for every aspect of the project. Naturally, then, various ways of sharing the data emerged," Ramanathan said.

Ramanathan said the UIDAI's dealings haven't been transparent. "What the Aadhaar regulations do is to say that contracts between companies and the UIDAI will be subject to rules of confidentiality. And only the UIDAI is allowed to do anything about it if there is a breach, or misuse of the data, leaving us all vulnerable to the ambitions of those handling the data."