AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 13218 - Smriti Irani’s I&B ministry media unit wants to track movement of journalists through RFID

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, April 8, 2018

13218 - Smriti Irani’s I&B ministry media unit wants to track movement of journalists through RFID - The Print

https://theprint.in/governance/smriti-iranis-ib-ministry-media-unit-wants-to-track-journalists-with-rfid/46941/

Smriti Irani’s I&B ministry media unit wants to track movement of journalists through RFID

AMRITA NAYAK DUTTA

4 April, 2018

Journalists participate in a protest | Burhaan Kinu/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Press Information Bureau wrote to the home ministry in January asking if media accreditation cards could be replaced with RFID cards to enhance security.

New Delhi: The Press Information Bureau, the central government’s nodal body for official communication, is working on a proposal to track the movement of journalists at government buildings and offices through radio-frequency identification (RFID) cards, ThePrint has learnt.

The PIB is the government’s media wing under the Smriti Irani-led information and broadcasting ministry. The ministry triggered a huge controversy with its order Monday to punish journalists for publishing or propagating “fake news”. The furore against the move caused Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order a roll-back in less than 24 hours.

In another proposal that is certain to raise the hackles of journalists in the national capital, the PIB wrote to the union home ministry in January asking if the accreditation cards it issues to journalists could be replaced with RFID cards.

The home ministry is considering the proposal, although top ministry sources told ThePrint that it could be impractical to implement.

Frank Noronha, the Principal Director-General of PIB, confirmed the move. But he also said there has been no progress on the proposal. PIB, he said, is only exploring options available for improving the security, use, look and other features of the existing accreditation card.

“We routinely explore what options are available to improve the card to facilitate free and easy entry and exit into government buildings on the basis of different technological advances,” Noronha told ThePrint in response to queries. “However, nothing has been done to this effect as yet.”

A home ministry spokesman did not respond to queries until the time of publication of this report.

What is RFID and how can it track journalists?

Press accreditation cards are issued by the government-appointed Central Press Accreditation Committee, which is headed by the director-general of the PIB. Nearly 3,000 cards are issued annually to reporters, photographers, TV cameramen and editors after a stringent vetting process.

RFID technology uses electromagnetic fields to identify and track tags attached to objects. The tags contain electronically-stored information. The technology is used in smart cards and tags such as modern-day vehicle registration certificates, driving licences, metro rail cards and even toll tags.

At present, journalists visiting government buildings have to only show their accreditation cards to the security guards. If ‘passive’ RFID is implemented, they would need to swipe/punch the card at the entrance. On the other hand, ‘active’ RFID technology would mean that a sensor picks up the frequency of the card and either lets one pass through or alerts security. Either way, the government can track journalists’ entry, exit and possibly who they are meeting.

The PIB has been contemplating increasing the security features of the card after several confidential documents were leaked from the petroleum ministry in 2015.

Problems in implementing RFID proposal

Home ministry sources said carrying out such an exercise would need massive new infrastructure and a huge budget. Security turnstile gates and other infrastructure work would have to be put in place for all the 56 buildings under the MHA’s ambit, apart from procuring RFID cards for thousands of journalists.

There would be other logistical difficulties too, such as differentiating journalists from the lakhs of other government employees accessing the buildings every day, the sources said.

The RFID proposal, or the now-aborted move to regulate fake news, are not the first such by the NDA government that give the impression it wants to regulate the media.

Earlier, the I&B ministry had issued an order warning officers to refrain from talking to the media without permissions from relevant authorities or face action, citing the PIB’s Information Dissemination Manual of 2017.