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, March 23, 2018

13063 - Universe's strength needed to break Aadhaar encryption: UIDAI CEO to SC - Business Standard

Universe's strength needed to break Aadhaar encryption: UIDAI CEO to SC

During Ajay Bhushan Pandey's PowerPoint presentation at the apex court, judges had questions about exclusions due to biometric failure, storage of authentication logs

Mayank Jain  |  New Delhi 
aadhaar, privacy
Illustration: Binay Sinha
It wasn’t an easy day’s work for the Unique Identification Authority of India CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey as he gave a PowerPoint presentation on Aadhaar in the Supreme Court as part of the proceedings in the ongoing case about the legality of the unique identification project. Even as Pandey batted for the security measures in place in the Aadhaar system to reassure the five-judge bench, he had to face tough follow up questions from the bench regarding the petitioners’ claims.It was one of a kind scene at the SC on Thursday as two LCD screens were set up along with projectors in the courtroom where the case was being heard. However, just before the beginning of the presentation at 2.30 PM, one of the projectors failed and the presentation had to be done from the other one only.The court had asked the petitioners to submit questions in writing for the presentation. Starting his presentation, the UIDAI chief said that there was no identity document for citizens before 2009 and even he didn’t have an ID since he came from a “small village.”Arguing that Aadhaar provided people a way to obtain services and subsidies in an efficient manner as it is not as difficult as getting a ration card to get public distribution grains.
He even argued that no Aadhaar data is shared without consent and in exceptional circumstances, never without the permission of a district judge or in the cases of national security.Contending that the data is safe and secure inside the Aadhaar’s 2048 bit encryption system, which is eight times stronger than the usual encryption used in financial systems, Pandey said that “it will take the whole universe’s strength to break this encryption.”However, Justice Sikri questioned the UIDAI chief about the cancellation of license of 49,000 enrollment operators and pointed out that not all of them would have been because of corruption or low quality of demographic data. To this, Pandey reiterated that UIDAI has very strict quality control standards.While Pandey also argued that when people’s biometrics change they won’t be denied services because an authentication failure message will be shown, which will ask them to update their biometrics, judges weren’t too convinced. Justice D Y Chandrachud said that UIDAI will get a failure message but won’t get to know if a person has been denied a service, which amounts to exclusion.Pandey responded by saying that the authority has been issuing instructions that no one should be denied benefits if their biometrics fail as there are over-riding methods such as one-time-password and demographic authentication available.Pandey also informed the court that Aadhaar enrollment is done in prisons also, apart from banks and post offices where enrollment centres are set up. The presentation included a tour of the enrollment and e-KYC process.Pandey contended that not one agency has so far taken biometric data for national security purposes and even the Central Bureau of Investigation was denied.A startling revelation from the UIDAI chief came just before the bench rose for the day when he said that even the authority doesn’t know the purpose for which Aadhaar authentications are being done.“We are doing 4 crore (40 million) authentications every day. We don't know the purpose of these authentications. Information remains in the silos and merging of silos is also prohibited,” he said.

First Published: Fri, March 23 2018. 00:13 IS
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