AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 13648 - India's biometric identification system is becoming increasingly susceptible to fraud

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

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

13648 - India's biometric identification system is becoming increasingly susceptible to fraud - Business Insider

India's biometric identification system is becoming increasingly susceptible to fraud

DILSHER DHILLONJUN 4, 2018, 12.59 PM

At the beginning of 2018, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) declared that the individual Aadhaar card details of Indians were “fully safe and secure”. The statement was a response to reports that 210 government-run websites had made Aadhaar info and bank details of a number of people public.

To confirm their belief, UIDAI added that the Aadhaar card details of a person couldn’t be misused without their biometric data as transactions could only be processed after biometric authentication.

Five months later, the UIDAI’s statement rings false in more ways than one.

A report in IndiaSpend highlights the fact that the number of Aadhaar-related fraud incidents reported in the English-language media outlets in the year so far (as of 7 May) is 73. This has already surpassed the total of 65 incidents reported in 2017.

This means that there are roughly four incidents of Aadhaar fraud that are reported by English news outlets every week. The number would likely be much higher if Hindi and regional language media outlets were taken into account. Further still we must also account for the fact that a lot of incidents involving fraud go unreported.

A total of 164 cases of fraud have been reported since the scheme’s launch in September 2011 that currently has around 1.2 billion people currently enrolled.

Nature of fraud

The incidents mainly involve the forgery, counterfeiting and outright theft of Aadhaar card information for a variety of reasons - purchasing SIM cards, securing loans, transferring assets, and receiving handouts from the government. Around 52 out of the 73 cases recorded as of May 2018 centre on the use of fake or forged Aadhaar card information or the use of fake details to get an Aadhaar card.

The remainder involve the use of stolen or fake Aadhaar card data in banking transactions. For example, in March, an investigation by the Mumbai police uncovered the opening of around 40 bank accounts with stolen Aadhaar card details. The accounts were opened for the purpose of financing an import-export business.

Lack of awareness

A significant portion of these frauds is due to the lack of awareness people have regarding their privacy and identity rights. Those enrolled on the Aadhaar scheme aren’t completely aware of what they can and can’t share with third parties and government agencies, as well as all the ways their information can be misused. If it can happen to anyone, people usually assume the odds of it happening to them are very low.

Furthermore, the biometric authentication aspect of the programme is itself flawed. As per documents from the Supreme Court, the UIDAI itself admitted that authentication failure rates for transactions through fingerprints and irises were 6% and 8.5%, respectively.

Last month, a 38-day hearing over the privacy and data security issues of the Aadhaar scheme came to an end. While a verdict on the constitutional validity of the scheme is expected within the next few months, the Supreme Court did declare that the scheme needed more effective regulatory oversight.