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, February 25, 2018

12879 - Measure your life - Greater Kashmir

Measure your life
That is what Biometric is all about.

Moonis Ali 
Srinagar, Publish Date: Feb 21 2018 11:01PM | Updated Date: Feb 21 2018 11:01PM

Biometric is a combination of two greek words bio meaning ‘life’ and metric meaning ‘to measure’. The very synthesis of the word itself speaks volumes about the potential scope of the revolutionising advancements it has and can bring in human lives along with the associated vulnerabilities and dangers that are attributed to it.

A widely accepted definition of Biometric is, the measurement and statistical analysis of people’s unique physical and behavioral characteristics. This is mainly employed by technologies for identification and access control, or for identifying individuals who are under surveillance. The basic premise of biometric authentication is that every person can be accurately identified by her or his intrinsic physical or behavioral traits.

Physical: facial-recognition, fingerprints, finger geometry (the size and position of fingers), iris recognition, vein recognition, retina scanning, voice recognition and DNA matching.

Behavioral: the unique ways in which individuals behave/act, includes recognition of typing patterns, walking gait and other gestures.

This article endeavors to build a case as to ‘Why we need a strong and an effective data protection law which safeguards an individual's biometric data’.

Why is technology driven by biometrics so booming ?
Reasons that have led to the acceptance of this technology primarily focus on the aspects of security (owing to the belief that it is unique and cannot be spoofed or duplicated) and greater efficiency of the system. Although these factors are often driven by governmental policies, corporate interests and an overall change in the moods of the common population (especially, young populations that seem to be ever more welcoming of new technologies).

Also, the rationale devolved by governments about the use of Biometric (BM) systems can range anywhere from being enablers for transparent and effective public delivery mechanisms, building huge surveillance & security grids to weeding out ghost entries in compromised socio-economic databases, depending upon the individual requirement of the countries. 

But If there is one other factor, that has promoted the rise of BM in personal spaces of individuals it is: convenience.

The ‘convenience’ that has brought about ideas like ‘why should I have to remember pins or passwords now?’ , let me just unlock my device/house/car with my fingerprint; has single-handedly steered the expansion of Bm based systems in consumer electronics and retail shopping sectors.

The rise of BM has triggered almost an arms race in the electronics and mobile phone industry, even a low/mid-range smartphone manufacturer cannot afford to unveil a phone without a tacky fingerprint sensor at the back. (though, I’d prefer the ones which have one at the front).

‘’ It is in the back drop of these widespread applications of biometrics that many organisations, activists, tech. enthusiasts have felt obligated to raise questions about the vulnerabilities and dangers that may stem from it. ‘’

Is my ‘Aadhaar’ safe?
At a time when the Government of India is making authentication through Aadhaar mandatory for an increasingly large number of services, and Aadhaar being integrated by private companies for everything from signing for SIM cards to being printed on Jet Airways boarding passes, the need for meaningful user privacy protections has never been greater keeping in view the recent incident where a citizen was able to buy all of the demographic data inside the Aadhaar database for a sum of Rs. 500.

In a scenario like and amid a national debate over the Aadhaar (national biometric identity database) the Supreme Court of India ruled unequivocally that privacy is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. It is now incumbent upon the government to enact a law protecting this right, even as litigation around Aadhaar continues. 

The TRAI consultation is one of several parallel processes to help shape a comprehensive data protection law; others include the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology Committee of Experts (the Srikrishna Committee). Numerous activists, organisations particularly the Mozilla Corporation (a renowned pioneer for user privacy and data protection) have recently filed comments with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in response to their consultation paper “Privacy, Security, and Ownership of Data in the Telecom Sector.” [1]

The thorough and thoughtful TRAI consultation paper asked several important questions, including: what should be the definition of personal data? How can users be empowered with choice and control? When should consent from users be obtained? What should be the responsibilities of data controllers? What should enforcement look like? What measures should be considered in order to strengthen and preserve the safety and security of telecommunications infrastructure and the digital ecosystem as a whole? And many more.

The ideal biometric data privacy law must ENSURE:
1. Multi-layered security and verifiable practices: Right from sourcing and collection of data, adequate security mechanisms must be incorporated inside the system. Tokens and hashes should be used for authentication instead of the actual numbers, names and addresses. Human corruption (at the database facilities) as the weakest link in the chain must be addressed comprehensively. 

2. That there should be no surprises in the usage of biometric data: Usage and sharing of information should occur in a way that is transparent and benefits the user.

3. Users are always in control: All the services and products put users in control of their data and online experiences. [2]

4. Limited collection of data: Collecting what is needed, de-identifying and deleting when no longer necessary. [2]
Biometric data should be perfunctorily compared with other regular forms of data because of its unique and extraordinary relation to an individuals identity. Any lapse or mishandling with biometric data can have damning consequences not just for the individual but the system as a whole.

REFERENCES:
[1] Mozilla Aadhaar Take Action document.
[2] Data Privacy Privacy Principles by mozilla.org .

(Moonis Ali is Data Science enthusiast and Final year student at Computer Science and Engineering department, Kashmir University, North Campus.)


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