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 29, 2018

13396 - Aadhaar Hearing: The Government’s Arguments So Far - Quint

Aadhaar Hearing: The Government’s Arguments So Far

Arpan Chaturvedi @arpanc_
28 April 2018, 4:30 PM28 April 2018, 4:30 PM

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The central and certain state governments and the Aadhaar-issuing body UIDAI continued to maintain that the biometric identification is voluntary and does not violate the right to privacy.

Attorney General of India KK Venugopal, Additional Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, senior advocates Rakesh Dwivedi, Jayant Bhushan, NK Kaul and other lawyers argued on behalf of the government in favour of the Aadhaar programme and the Aadhaar Act, 2016. Petitioners in the matter have completed their arguments, highlighting concerns about possible citizen profiling, state control, denial of public services and hasty passage of the Aadhaar Act.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra is hearing the matter that will decide the fate of the world’s largest biometric identification programme. Another Constitutional bench, in a verdict stemming from the Aadhaar matter, had earlier ruled that privacy is a fundamental right.

Here are the key arguments made for Aadhaar by the government and UIDAI’s counsels:

Right To Privacy Not An Absolute Right
The right to privacy is not absolute. There can be instances when this right can be curtailed and the Aadhaar programme is one such instance.
The Aadhaar programme satisfies the three conditions when right to privacy can be curtailed as laid down by the nine-judge bench. These include existence of a law, compelling state interest/larger public interest and test of proportionality.
There must be a balance between protecting right to privacy and ensuring right to a dignified life for all the citizens.
The Aadhaar programme ensures the right to dignified life for citizens by plugging leakages in distribution of subsidies.
The right to life is also a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Each of the subsidies provided under the Aadhaar Act is traceable to Article 21, ensuring a right to a dignified life and therefore it is a constitutionally valid scheme.


Also Read: Is Aadhaar Likely To Pass The Privacy Test?

Minimum Invasion Of Privacy In Aadhaar

Aadhaar does not violate the fundamental right to privacy, the Attorney General of India argued.
Data collected as part of the scheme is minimum.
If the top court feels any data should not have been taken, the government will delete that data and stop using it in the Aadhaar programme.

It requires only the bare demographic particulars while eschewing most other demographic particulars. It further requires the bare biometric factors, namely photograph, fingerprints and iris.KK Venugopal, Attorney General of India

Aadhaar-Mobile SIM Card Linkage

The government till now had said that mobile phone connections were being linked with Aadhaar on the directions of the Supreme Court in the Lokniti Foundation’s petition seeking verification of every user.
During the hearing, Justice DY Chandrachud said that the Supreme made no such direction in the Lokniti case.

In fact there was no such direction from the Supreme Court, but you took it and used it as a tool to make Aadhaar mandatory for mobile users. Justice DY Chandrachud (PTI Report Citing Court Proceedings)

The central government maintained there has no violation of any interim orders passed by the top court ever since the challenge to the Aadhaar was first heard.
It said before the Aadhaar Act was introduced, “obtaining an Aadhaar number or an enrollment number was voluntary, especially because of the interim orders passed by this court”.

UIDAI CEO’s Presentation

The UIDAI gets minimum information when transactions are carried out using Aadhaar authentication.
UIDAI does not get to know the purpose and details of those transactions, its Chief Executive Officer Ajay Bhushan Pandey said.
The e-KYC data is not shared with anyone except with the Aadhaar holder who does the transaction using Aadhaar authentication.
To counter petitioners’ argument of Aadhaar data leaks, Pandey said there has not been a single instance of any data leak from the UIDAI database.
The Attorney General also said the Aadhaar database has strong security features.


Also Read: India Cites Height of Database Center Wall as ID Leak Shield
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