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

Saturday, March 24, 2018

13082 - Aadhaar Articles dated 24th March 2018



The News Minute
Days after Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey defended Aadhaar's security, a security researcher claims that the database is leaking information on every Aadhaar holder. The New Delhi-based researcher reportedly told ZDNet that a data leak on a system run by a ...






Economic Times
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today disposed off a plea of an activist lawyer who was denied 'tatkal' passport on the ground of non-submission of Aadhaar, saying the issue has been settled as the government will now not seek the biometric identifier till the constitution bench decides the pleas ...



NDTV
Aadhaar details of all registered users are exposed online by the vulnerable system of a state-owned utility service provider, according to a new report. The report claims this issue was brought to the notice of the Indian government over a month ago, but no action has been taken yet to fix the issue.






Times of India
In the Assembly on Thursday, state social justice minister Rajkumar Badole announced that they will continue giving subsidies to leprosy patients under the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana scheme, and will also send a proposal to the Centre to exclude such patients from mandatory Aadhaar linkage.






Engadget
India's Aadhaar database is a national system that contains personal data and biometric information on over 1.1 billion Indian citizens. While joining is technically voluntary (for now, at least), enrollment has become necessary for things like opening bank accounts and applying for loans, filing tax returns ...






Hindustan Times
A human skeleton with an Aadhaar card was found near Church More in Gaganga tea garden adjacent to Bagdogra on Friday, police said. The Aadhaar card belongs to Ajit Kumar Bhattacharya, a resident of Tumba Hold area of Matigara in Siliguri, the police said, adding that the man went missing a ...






Scroll.in
Testimonies from people who have been denied several entitlements due to the mandatory integration of welfare schemes like PDS with Aadhaar. by Aabid Shafi. Published Yesterday · 06:12 pm. Play. Producer: Shibika Suresh | Video Editors: Sanjeev Nair and Makrand Sanghvi. Support our journalism ...






Beebom (blog)
By now, nobody should be surprised about Aadhaar data breaches, but an exclusive report from ZDNet says the privacy and security of every single Aadhaar card holder in India is potentially under threat, thanks a major security lapse affecting the controversial ID database that has been proven time ...






Sify News
According to the government's top lawyer, Attorney General KK Venugopal, Aadhaar data is secure behind 13-foot high, 5-foot thick walls. He assured the told the five-judge constitutional bench in the Supreme Court that biometric data taken from millions of Indians is kept safe in a complex in Manesar, ...






Telangana Today
Hyderabad: Even as the debate over privacy and safety of the Aadhaar database continues, Crime Investigation Department (CID) Cybercrimes Additional Superintendent of Police U Rammohan Rao on Friday said “it would take 13 billion years” if someone really wanted to hack the UIDAI server and ...






Tech in Asia
Tech giants express concern about Singapore's plan to fight fake news (Singapore). Social media giants including Facebook and Twitter were asked to speak at a public hearing on “fake news” at Singapore's parliament yesterday. Officials from the companies claim enough laws are in place to tackle the ...






State Times
NEW DELHI: Denying reports in a section of media, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh clarified here on Friday that Aadhaar Card is optional for drawing pension and contrary to the reports, it is not mandatory for ...






Economic Times
Proof of Identity - Any one of Voters Card / Aadhaar Card/ Drivers License / Employers Card. ... Identity proof (copy of passport/voter ID card/driving license/Aadhaar); Address proof (copy of passport/voter ID card/driving license/Aadhaar); Bank statement of previous 3 months (Passbook of previous 6 ...






HERE. NOW
As per the statement tabled by the minister before the Lok Sabha, Orissa has now 1,23,87,562 PM Jan Dhan accounts out of which 88,85,741 (72 per cent) have successfully linked their Aadhaar card details with the banks in which they had accounts while 28 per cent are still to come on board.






The Hindu
Mere encryption is not enough to protect data (“UIDAI chief defends safety of Aadhaar data before SC”, March 23). Companies like Facebook, Apple and Google have some of the best computer scientists in the world and yet we come across news reports on leakage of data. The question we need to ask ...






Inc42 Media
We bring to you the latest dope of Indian startup news stories of the week from the Indian startup ecosystem. One of the biggest news impacting the Indian startup ecosystem was the powerpoint presentation by UIDAI CEO in the Supreme Court to defend Aadhaar. With the aim of identifying misgivings ...






The Citizen (press release)
Proof of this is the statement of the Union government's learned Attorney General Shri K.K.Venugopal, assuring the Hon'ble Supreme Court that the Aadhaar database is safe because it is in a secure building within the Manesar complex surrounded by 13-feet high and 5-feet thick concrete walls with ...






The News Minute
In a notice shared on the NSKFDC website, the instructions say that those coming to enroll themselves for the rehabilitation scheme should bring one passport size photograph, bank passbook with a copy, Aadhaar with a copy (any other document in support of their identity, if Aadhaar is not issued) and ...