AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 12476 - Lock Your Aadhaar against Misuse says UIDAI

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, December 7, 2017

12476 - Lock Your Aadhaar against Misuse says UIDAI

Comment:

I find it quite preposterous that the perpetrators of this wildly insecure scheme are now putting the onus on the citizen to protect the data which has been forcibly collected and retained by them -- that is the only interpretation I can give to their advice "Lock your Aadhaar number to prevent misuse"!

All this while The FM along with Sri Nandan Nilekani and his cronies have been bragging about the sophisticated safety features using advanced encryption technology to prevent unauthorised access. Now they have devised a scheme for locking and unlocking the data through mobile phones which are by nature absolutely insecure despite all the mumbo-jumbo about OTP!

It is very easy for them to claim that the aadhaar data was stolen because it was not 'locked' by the victim citizen.

It appears that only those who are savvy with smart phones can use this dubious facility (which automatically excludes idiots like me). I am thinking of a semi-literate villager jostling in a queue trying to collect her monthly ration, and the shopkeeper saying she must unlock her aadhaar data for authentication before any rice can be issued (and hopefully she should remember to lock it again later). She already has her hands full -- the baby can't be left alone in the hut during her three hours in the open-air queue, besides a sack and bags for the provisions, and of course a tattered plastic cover containing an aadhaar card and a 'smart phone' which only occasionally gets blessed with connectivity. How will she negotiate all this?

At the other end of the scale, even with a post-graduate degree in engineering I will probably face insurmountable problems trying withdraw money from my own bank savings if everything has to be done through inscrutable screen commands! I have never used a credit card, whereas the debit which was issued by default has been used only for drawing urgently required money from ATMs outside banking hours, except for precisely FOUR occasions for purchases during Nov-Dec 2016 when cash was just not available at banks and ATMs. I know I am hopelessly old-fashioned and unfit to live in today's world.

I can keep rambling and cribbing like this endlessly, but to no purpose, and I'm probably getting incoherent already because I tend to get worked up about such things! So let me stop with that. I doubt if there's anything new for you in whatever I have stated above. Anyway I'm glad to note that you have taken up this battle seriously.

Someone pointed out to me recently that our PM has killed more people (waiting in ATM queues, starvation due to withdrawal of benefits caused by Aadhaar identification glitches, etc) than the terrorists.

Regards,

(Name witheld on Request)