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

Friday, February 9, 2018

12902 - Customers defrauded at 4 PSBs through Aadhaar-based authentication misuse

Customers defrauded at 4 PSBs through Aadhaar-based authentication misuse

The banks - Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, and UCO Bank - recently reported the matter to the Union government

Somesh Jha & Namrata Acharya  |  New Delhi/Kolkata 

Last Updated at February 8, 2018 03:18 IST - Business 
Standard

adhaar

The staff of four public sector banks (PSBs) has been alleged to have salted away depositors’ money by misusing the latter’s Aadhaar-based authentication.

The banks — Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, and UCO Bank – recently reported the matter to the Union government, complaining that Rs 14.2 million had been fraudulently withdrawn using customers’ Aadhaar numbers.

“According to the data reported by PSBs, there have been incidents of money being fraudulently withdrawn from bank accounts using the customers’ Aadhaar numbers in a few banks,” Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla told the Rajya Sabha in a written statement on Tuesday.

This has come when the Supreme Court is hearing petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Act, which makes the 12-digit biometric identifier mandatory for availing of government services.

In two cases related to the Bank of India, “wrongful or fraudulent mapping of Aadhaar numbers” had been done by its business correspondents. An amount of Rs 13.7 million was withdrawn from the accounts of customers.

“The bank has sensitised the operational staff to take precaution by mapping Aadhaar numbers and strengthening control measures, and stepped up inspection to prevent such frauds,” the bank has told the government. It has also initiated action against the wrongdoers.

Aadhaar fraud

Allahabad Bank is investigating a case in which Rs 49,000 had been withdrawn by misusing Aadhaar. The bank found the same Aadhaar number was printed on two Aadhaar cards with different names. However, by the time the discrepancy was detected, the money had been diverted from the customer’s account.

“We found an instance in which a fake Aadhaar card was used to divert money. Aadhaar cards can be printed without much effort.
Hence, we are now waiting till we get the name authenticated from the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) for initiating banking operations. If the name on the Aadhaar card does not match with that of the UIDAI, we go by the one of the UIDAI,” said a spokesperson for Allahabad Bank.

Syndicate Bank has recovered Rs 226,000 some employees had stolen in the same manner. After the case came to light, the bank is verifying the Aadhaar-seeded bank accounts and has issued standard operating procedures for linking Aadhaar with bank accounts.

Last year too, there were two cases in which Rs 121,500 had been taken out fraudulently. UCO Bank has caught a business correspondent involved in withdrawing Rs 115,000 from a bank account using Aadhaar details.

“Disciplinary action has been initiated against a bank employee, an FIR has been lodged against the erring staff and the business correspondent concerned, and the services of the business correspondent have been discontinued,” the Kolkata-based bank said.

In 2017, a depositor lost Rs 95,250 to fraudulent practices. A UCO Bank spokesperson said the Aadhaar linkage was an evolving mechanism. “So far, we haven’t received any major complaint on misuses of Aadhaar. However, we do advise customers not to use Aadhaar for know-your-customer purposes because there are possibilities of misuse,” the spokesperson said.

In 2016-17, PSBs reported 20 cases in which Rs 765,268 was siphoned off.


First Published: Thu, February 08 2018. 03:18 IST
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