AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 13856 - Inside the secret world of Facebook groups offering fake Aadhaar cards

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, August 17, 2018

13856 - Inside the secret world of Facebook groups offering fake Aadhaar cards - Alt News

Inside the secret world of Facebook groups offering fake Aadhaar cards

By Pooja Chaudhuri
-9th August 2018

“Fake Aadhaar available…Ib [Inbox] for deal,” reads one of the posts on a Facebook group “Help for Friends – Advertising Deals” or as its over 7,000 members call it “HFF”.

HFF is a secret group and does not come up on Facebook search results. You need an invitation to join it.

The group is a close-knit circuit of individuals buying and selling all sorts of things. However, amidst deals violating Facebook’s terms and conditions, we stumbled upon an issue even more grave – people offering to manufacture Aadhaar cards.

In the screenshot below, one of the members can be seen asking others to “inbox” him if they want Aadhaar cards. He claims that the ID proof will be “1001% working”. He also makes a post offering “fake Aadhaar cards for Facebook verification”.

Another member claims that he has at his disposal “many” PDF files of Aadhaar cards. He wishes to know at what price he will be able to sell them. One of the members advertises his stock of 100 Aadhaar cards as “loot loot loot”, selling them for Rs 150 each.

There are also offerings of PAN cards in the group.

The collage below captures several others offering fake Aadhaar cards.

However, this bargain is not one-sided as supply is only created by demand. In the screenshot below, members can be seen willing to purchase fake Aadhaar cards as long as they “look real”.

One of the members also asked for Aadhaar data, which he claimed was “available a few days back.” He wrote, “I am willing to pay good money to anyone who has it.”

There was another Aadhaar related demand that came to our notice – editing. In the screenshot below, one of the members is looking for someone who can edit his date of birth in his Aadhaar card. “Bas real lagna chahiye,” he writes.

We discovered a substantial demand for Aadhaar related editing work for various purposes.

Recently, Alt News published another story about a closed Facebook group that goes by the name “Sharing is Caring – Advertising Deals”. Our detailed report disclosed the inner workings of its 18,000 odd members who regularly buy/sell Facebook pages, Instagram accounts and more.

Help for Friends is more close-knit than Sharing is Caring (SIC) but has a lot of the same members as SIC. Just like in SIC, deals on Facebook pages dedicated to politics, army, girls, actresses and cricket and more are made on HFF too.

Fake Aadhaar card deals on Sharing is Caring

Deals on Fake Aadhar cards are not limited to HFF. We stumbled upon deals related to Aadhaar in the ‘Sharing is Caring’ group as well. The screenshots below are from SIC. If you look closely, some of these names appear in the screenshots of HFF posted earlier in the article.

However, post Alt New’s story, admins of Sharing is Caring seem to have become more vigilant about what sells in the group. One of them posted “new rules as per the need of time”, which now penalise (temporarily ban) members making deals on Aadhaar cards or any government ID proof and fake government offer websites, among others.

There is a reason why groups like SIC and HFF keep their status as closed or secret as the members are well aware that their dealings are often illegal. As this issue comes to light, it becomes pertinent that necessary actions are taken against these groups.