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, June 30, 2019

14183 - Aadhaar Articles Dated 29th June 2019


Parliament LIVE: Key Aadhaar-related bill to be introduced in Lok Sabha; Rajya Sabha to see ...
Firstpost
Minister of Communications, Electronics & IT Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday is to introduce a bill to further amend the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of ...

Madras HC Allows IFF To Intervene To Oppose Plea For Linking Aadhaar With Social Media ...
Live Law
The Madras High Court on Thursday allowed Internet Freedom Foundation(IFF) to intervene in the petitions which seek directions to link Aadhaar with ...

Aadhaar Bill overlooks individual privacy
The Hans India
The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill tabled in Parliament overlooks privacy of Indians and gives prominence to the interests of businesses, ...

Daily Bulletin: Narendra Modi meets Donald Trump in Osaka; Ravi Shankar Prasad to introduce ...
Firstpost
Daily Bulletin: Narendra Modi meets Donald Trump in Osaka; Ravi Shankar Prasad to introduce Aadhaar-related bill in LS; day's top stories.

Nabbed Illegal Bangladeshi Owns Aadhaar, PAN; Says Paid 4000 Takas Bribe To Border Guards ...
Swarajya
The Assam police on Wednesday (26 June) arrested Aynul Haque, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi national, from state's Dhubri district for illegally entering ...

Budget 2019 expectations for E-KYC, Aadhaar, ATMs and cashless transactions
Zee Business
Sameer Aggarwal, Founder and CEO, RevFin, told Zee Business Online that Budget should provide more clarity on E-KYC process through Aadhaar.

13.02 lakh Aadhaar cards holders in Nagaland
Morung Express
As of May 31, a total of 13, 02, 957 Aadhaar cards were generated in Nagaland as per data provided by the Ministry of Electronics and Information ...

Aadhaar Amendment Center demands reopening of grants
Ibcworldnews
Three months after the district administration appealed to the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj department to reopen the Aadhaar correctional ...

Parliament LIVE: Amit Shah's J&K Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha Today
News18
Aadhaar, Money-Laundering Bills to be Moved Today | While the Home Minister will move the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Amendment Bill, Law ...

A 'smart' way to avail of driving licence services
The Hindu
However, to avail of the facility on web platform through cellphones, laptop and desktop, the service-seekers need to integrate their Aadhaar details ...

Centre Announces 'One Nation, One Ration Card' Plan for PDS Beneficiaries
The Wire
The Supreme Court has earlier ruled that an Aadhaar card is mandatory to avail oneself of government schemes and subsidies, however, confusion ...

Parliament HIGHLIGHTS: Lok Sabha gives nod to President's rule in JK for another 6 months; both ...
The Indian Express
A Bill to amend the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act will also be introduced by the Minister of ...

Loan waiver: In-house tech helps Karnataka save crores
The Indian Express
Using Aadhaar, land survey and ration card numbers along with bank data, and digitised land and ration card records, officials say CLWS has saved ...

Spice Money launches smartphone enabled Micro ATMs
Financial Chronicle (press release) (blog)
Spice Money has already been rolling out the cash withdrawal facility across its 2,00,000 merchant points through Aadhaar Enabled Payment System.

IAS Officer Who Blew Lid Off Post-Matric Scholarship Scam Transferred
NDTV
... of money meant for post-matric scholarship for Scheduled Caste and Backward Class students "by changing Aadhaar numbers of beneficiaries and ...

UP: Fraudsters held for siphoning money off people using fingerprint clone
Business Standard
... who allegedly withdrew money from people's accounts by compromising with the Aadhaar-enabled payment system using their fingerprint clones.

Parliament Live updates: Amit Shah to move J&K Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha today
India Today
Some other important bills including the Aadhaar amendment bill and money-laundering act, 2002, will also be taken up for consideration. Meanwhile ...

Digital ID scheduled for year-end
Bangkok Post
Pramod Varma, chief architect of the Aadhaar digital ID in India, said his country spends US$50 billion (1.53 trillion baht), 2% of GDP, every year in ...

Only 132 depositors yet to get refund, asked to submit documents
Times of India
They have been asked to submit the prescribed form, accompanied by the original bond issued by the VR Chits, Aadhaar card, bank passbook, legal ...

Employment generation: Formally, an informal solution
Economic Times (blog)
With some of the pillars already casted by the first Narendra Modi government in the form of Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM), Digital India, Skill India, ...

Bag containing Rs 40K snatched
The Tribune
... a resident of Amritsar, alleged that three persons riding a Bullet sped away after snatching his bag containing Rs 40,000 and an Aadhaar card from ..

Madras HC: Internet Freedom Foundation to act as an intervener in WhatsApp traceability case
MediaNama.com
20214/2018) that sought a writ mandamus (special order by court) to 'declare the linking of Aadhaar or any one of the Government authorized identity ...

Bills in Rajya Sabha: Govt may make up majority
DNA India
The NDA may finally be able to pass the Triple Talaq bill and the Aadhaar Amendment bill in Rajya Sabha. Narendra Modi-led NDA 2.0 has tallied ...

Neetu Solanki murder: Wanted in 2011 killing, he got new identity, job at Gurgaon firm
The Indian Express
At the time of joining, his employers said, Gehlot had all identification proofs, including an Aadhaar card, PAN, driving licence and Class XII marksheet ...

Uttar Pradesh Youth Help Elderly Access Benefits
The Logical Indian
There were mistakes in my Aadhaar, and I was not able to produce my income certificate due to problems beyond my understanding. I gave up on this 

Sudugadu Sidda families assured of 20 guntas of land to build houses
The Hindu
He said the community would get Aadhaar card and other relevant documents,” MR. Rajappa said. The officer also asked the residents to send their ...

Want to access your PF account? Here's how to activate your UAN online
Times Now
Step 3: Enter certain details such as Member ID, Aadhaar, PAN, Name, DoB, mobile number, email ID etc. and enter the captcha code. (Entering email ...

Zero Balance Savings Accounts of SBI Vs HDFC Vs ICICI Vs SCB Vs Axis Bank; Know features ...
Financial Express
While the regular savings bank account requires the customers to maintain a certain monthly average balance (MAB), there is no need to do so with a ...

Spice Money launches smartphone-enabled ''Micro-ATMs''
Outlook India
The company has already been rolling out the cash withdrawal facility across its merchant points through Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS).

Strictly Confidential! How Finance Ministry Keeps Budget a Secret
The Quint
The upcoming Union Budget on 5 July has the country's attention for many reasons. Firstly, it's the first Budget by the Modi government after it returned ...
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Friday, June 28, 2019

14182 - Facial Recognition: The Reality -

Facial Recognition: The Reality

  • 27 June 2019
  • Sally Ward-Foxton
AI is making automated facial recognition for mass surveillance a reality - but at what cost?


The UK is one of the most surveilled countries in the world, with closed-circuit televisions (CCTV) cameras everywhere, from shops to buses to private homes. In the last couple of years, AI techniques, such as neural networks, have propelled large-scale automated facial recognition. Combined with the UK’s huge network of existing CCTV cameras, this could hold vast potential for security applications.



A promotional picture for NEC’s NeoFace facial recognition technology. (Source: NEC)



However, there are worrying implications for privacy. Biometric facial data taken from photos or CCTV footage is particularly troubling because it can be taken without the person’s consent and without them knowing about it. This data may be collected indiscriminately — whether the subject is matched with a watch list or not — and it allows people to be located and for their movements to be tracked. It’s easy to imagine photos of crowds with every face linked to the person’s identity, then potentially connected to all kinds of other data about them.

Law Enforcement

If we are going to trade our privacy for increased security, the benefits must outweigh the costs. Is facial recognition technology actually effective in catching criminals?

Police forces around the UK have performed trials of live facial recognition technology in public places such as shopping malls, sports stadiums, and busy streets. The Metropolitan Police have undertaken 10 trials of the technology so far, using dedicated camera equipment along with NEC’s NeoFace algorithm, which measures the structure of each face, including distance between the eyes, nose, mouth, and jaw. According to NEC, this algorithm can tolerate poor quality image such as compressed surveillance video, with the ability to match images with resolutions as low as 24 pixels between the eyes.

Despite winning four consecutive NIST FIVE (U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Face in Video Evaluation) awards for performance, NeoFace didn’t do terribly well in the field. In the eight deployments between 2016 and 2018, 96% of the Met’s facial recognition matches misidentified innocent members of the public as being on the watch list.

A major criticism of the trials has been that the public were not sufficiently alerted to them and were not given the opportunity to opt out. The BBC filmed one passerby in North London covering his face — the police photographed him anyway and gave him a £90 fine for disorderly conduct.



A South Wales Police van with facial recognition cameras. Text on the side of the van reads “Facial recognition fitted” in English and Welsh, but vans used by the Metropolitan Police were less clearly marked. (Source: Liberty)



South Wales Police’s more extensive trials of the technology were marginally more successful: only 91% of matches were misidentifications of innocent members of the public. Images of all passersby, matched or not, were stored by the police for 31 days.

This trial prompted one member of the public to take legal action against South Wales Police, having been photographed while out shopping and while at a peaceful anti-arms protest. He claims that automated facial recognition technology violated his right to privacy, interfered with his right to protest, and breached data protection laws (judgment is due this fall).

Ethical Concerns

A recent panel discussion at the AI conference CogX in London tackled the ethics of automated facial recognition technology. Martha Spurrier, director of human rights organization Liberty, highlighted research findings that surveillance distorts even non-criminal behavior.

“This technology affects all of us. It affects how we all interact with public spaces. It affects whether we decide to go to a protest, whether we decide to go and pray somewhere, or whether we hang out with people who might have been in trouble with the police,” she said.

Well-known issues with bias in facial recognition whereby women and people of color are more likely to be misidentified by algorithms are also a cause for concern, Spurrier said.

“[We know that] law enforcement marginalizes and demonizes particular communities. And this technology, whether it’s biased in and of itself, it will be used by people where bias is already entrenched. We have unfortunately no answer to dealing with police racism. So, we shouldn't equip [the police] with even more invasive tools to be able to enact that racism on an even greater scale,” she said.

Griff Ferris, legal and policy officer for civil liberties and privacy organization Big Brother Watch, said the public should be concerned about trials of live facial recognition like the ones carried out by UK police.

“It is mass surveillance. It biometrically scans every single face within a public space, checking against the watch list… It treats your face like a fingerprint, or DNA swab,” Ferris said, asking the audience how many would be willing to give fingerprints or have DNA swabbed when entering the auditorium (no hands went up).

“That's how it treats a public space, or a concert, or a protest. That's what it's doing and it's doing it without your knowledge and without your consent,” he added.

Proprietary Tech

Shaun Moore, CEO of facial recognition company Trueface, was the sole representative of a facial recognition company on the CogX panel. Trueface started with a smart doorbell in 2013, but now provides facial recognition to banks for secure ATM transactions, to the hospitality industry for VIP recognition, and to law enforcement.

“The [U.S.] government does not need facial recognition to surveil you. They have social media. They have your phone records. They have your credit card statements. So, you really need to think about this more holistically than just surveillance,” said Moore.

While he conceded that testing the technology on people who didn’t consent was “inappropriate,” he said there was no way around it if we want the technology to work.

“That is the only way to collect real information, and without collecting real information you will not know where the issues lie, so it's a bit of a [quandary],” he said. “But without real deployment of this technology with people who don't know that it's watching them, you will not get the information you need to see if it's accurate enough to identify people that you are looking for.”



Trueface’s facial recognition and spoof detection technology was showcased at ISC West in Las Vegas earlier this year. (Source: Trueface)



Moore said Trueface prides itself on enforcing responsible use of its technology, primarily by screening customers carefully and supplying to opt-in applications.

“We sell directly to our customers into their local infrastructure, so it's not a cloud API, you can't just go onto our site and buy our technology,” he said. “We spend at least six months with our customers to know exactly how they're using it, and we work in… primarily opt-in applications.”

Trueface’s technology protects those who haven’t opted in by blurring all faces in real time, Moore said. Imagery is not collected from faces other than for the moment that the system performs its matching, with non-matching faces completely erased from the system. He also pointed out that facial recognition does not mean storing images of faces — the Trueface system makes a mathematical representation of that face in a proprietary way, so if someone were to hack in to the database, it wouldn’t be possible to reverse engineer those numbers to plot a particular face.

Meanwhile, other private sector companies are divided on whether the technology in its current form should be used for surveillance applications. Amazon has provided its Rekognition facial recognition tool to law enforcement across the United States, despite an open letter from leading AI researchers calling for them to stop on the grounds that it is discriminatory. Microsoft has said that it doesn’t want its facial recognition technology to be used by law enforcement, with Microsoft President Brad Smith calling for regulation of the technology.

What Does the Law Say?

“What’s really clear is that [UK] policy in this area is a hot mess,” said Hetan Shah, executive director of the Royal Statistical Society. “It is really complicated, and that’s why we don’t have easy answers in this space.”

UK law stipulates the conditions for police collection of fingerprints and DNA, and what happens to that data after it is taken. It does not cover any other form of biometrics such as facial recognition images and data. While this type of data may be loosely covered under the Data Protection Act or the European GDPR regulation, biometric data other than DNA and fingerprints is not named specifically in either law. A High Court ruling in 2012 found that it was unlawful for the UK’s Home Office to store facial images of innocent people, but the Home Office only deployed a workaround, offering to delete the images of “unconvicted persons” who applied to have them removed.



Hetan Shah addresses a panel on the ethics of facial recognition technology at CogX 2019. (Source: EE Times)



The Ada Lovelace Institute, of which Shah is deputy chair, was created to investigate ethical issues related to AI technology. The Institute has commissioned a study of public perception of facial recognition technology used in public places.

“One thing we’re talking to stakeholders about is calling for a moratorium on this technology, which we think is in the private sector’s interest as much as citizens’ interest, because if we get the regulation wrong we’ll quickly be in the wrong place,” Shah said, citing a precedent set by the moratorium on genetic profiling in the insurance industry.

“In the same way that we've seen the science of genetically modified foods get set back 10 years because the public in Europe wouldn't support it, we need to find a path which gets social license to operate,” he continued. “The best way to do that is to pause on technology, and to have this discussion in many forums around the country and to think through them overall.”

Worst-Case Scenario

The situation overseas varies widely. San Francisco is one of the first cities to explicitly restrict use of the technology, following a grassroots campaign supported by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. On the other extreme, frequently cited as a worst-case scenario is China. While China is keen to show off sunglasses equipped with facial recognition cameras on its police officers, there has been an international outcry about the use of facial recognition to track its Uighur Muslim community. China reportedly uses facial recognition technology on an enormous country-wide network of CCTV cameras to classify the ethnicity of its citizens, with alarms sounding if too many Uighurs appear in one area, for example. This level of social control, while alarming to Western ideals, is perfectly possible with today’s technologies.

While this is far from the situation on British streets, without any form of regulation, it’s easy to imagine the technology invading people’s right to privacy, or at worst, being deliberately misused.

The low accuracy and high rates of misidentification demonstrated in UK trials are particularly concerning, especially for women and people of color, who are disproportionately misidentified by today’s facial recognition algorithms. The argument “if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear,” may no longer hold true.
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14181 - Aadhaar Articles Dated 27th June 2019


BT Buzz: Does the amended Aadhaar Bill circumvent Supreme Court's order?
Business Today
On June 24, Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Minister of Law & Justice, Electronics & Information Technology introduced The Aadhaar and Other Laws 

How To Make Use Of UIDAI's Online Aadhaar Card Services
NDTV
The UIDAI or Unique Identification Authority of India provides a host of online services for Aadhaar holders and applicants. The UIDAI - the issuer of ...

Fine-tuning Aadhaar - The Tribune

Live: Aadhaar Amendment bill listed for consideration and passage in Lok Sabha
MediaNama.com
The Aadhaar and (Other Laws) Amendment Bill, 2019 is listed in the Lok Sabha today for consideration and passage. IT Minister RS Prasad will move ...

Your Aadhaar card can help you win up to Rs 30000! Here's how
Times Now
New Delhi: Your Aadhaar card can help you win up to Rs 30,000! UIDAI has organised 'My Aadhaar Online' contest. The competition is open to all the ...

For whom is the Aadhaar Amendments Bill: only to please Telecom companies
National Herald
The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill that is being tabled overlooks privacy of Indians and gives prominence to the interests of telecom ...

Soon, you can update Aadhaar details, pay bills at airports, stations
DNA India
Soon, you will be able to update the details of your Aadhaar or PAN card, or pay a bill while sitting at the airport or waiting for a train or metro in New ...

Parliament session live updates: Aadhaar amendment bill to be taken up in Lok Sabha today
Hindustan Times
A number of bills including one about Aadhaar are slated to be taken up in Lok Sabha on Thursday. Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will move the ...

Aadhaar card mandatory for marriages in Ganjam
OrissaPOST
Chhatrapur: An awareness programme that makes Aadhaar card mandatory for marriages was launched in Chhatrapur town of Ganjam district ...

Parliament Live Updates: Encephalitis our biggest failure, says PM Modi
India Today
... consideration in Lok Sabha today. The bill will amend the Aadhaar Act 2016 and replace an ordinance issued in March. Stay tuned for live updates.

RBI committee recommends setting up Universal Enterprise ID, linkage across individual and ...
MediaNama.com
The committee, in its report, highlights the problems with Udyog Aadhaar and in-person KYC, and lack of infrastructure for cash-lending; it makes ...

Pay Interest For Delaying Salary Of Employee Who Did Not Link Aadhaar: Bombay HC To Port ...
Live Law
he Bombay High Court, has directed Mumbai Port Trust to pay interest on the delayed salary of nearly 30 months, to an employee, who refused to link ...

DNA Edit: Pan-India Digi Gaon - Digital India is expanding its footprint
DNA India
Not for nothing are Aadhaar and PAN the country's ultimate enablers. Despite the many naysayers and legion of doubting Thomases, the two cards ...

Volunteer recruitment driveattracts youth in droves
The Hindu
Aadhaar is not made mandatory at the time of registration and applicants can register using mobile number but have to come up with Aadhaar within ...

Back To Business
Business Today
The Modi government is all set to table the Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill to bring the unique identity and its utility in line with the apex ...

UIDAI's expenditure in FY'20 till May at Rs 30.32 cr: Ravi Shankar Prasad
Economic Times
Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) incurred an expenditure of Rs 30.32 crore in the first two months of 2019-20 financial year, Parliament ...

Karnataka postal department comes to rescue of scholarship students
The New Indian Express
These beneficiaries have not been able to avail their funds as their bank accounts are not linked to their Aadhaar numbers.

What is Micro ATM? This fintech has just made withdrawing money, balance enquiry even easier
Zee Business
To operate this portal, a person has to undergo verification process such as Aadhaar card with fingerprint scanning or card swipe option. Once verified ...

Only due to the surname the wedding was broken, the bride did such a thing
News Track English
In fact, a marriage broke due to the mismatch of Aadhaar card in Andhra Pradesh. The case is of Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. The girl's father's Aadhaar

A multi-year roadmap with milestones is the key for electric vehicles: N Chandrasekaran
The Hindu BusinessLine
Arguing that changing from conventional two-wheelers to 100 per cent electric is “not like Aadhaar, not a software and print cards”, the companies said ...

17th Lok Sabha updates: Homeopathy Central Council Bill passed in LS, House adjourned till ...
Oneindia
New Delhi, June 27: A bill seeking to extend the period for reconstitution of the Central Council for Homeopathy (CCH) from the existing period of one

RBI: In cross-border deals, data can be stored abroad
Livemint
“This may, inter alia, include—customer data (name, mobile number, email, Aadhaar number, PAN number, etc), payment sensitive data (customer ...

Changing to electric 2-wheelers from broken-down mode no longer esteemAadhaar, printing ...
National Times
NEW DELHI: Changing from broken-down two-wheelers to 100 per cent electric is “no longer esteem Aadhaar, no longer a system and print cards” ...

Amit Shah's first bill today in LS on Jammu and Kashmir reservation
Greater Kashmir
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will also introduce a bill to amend Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and ...

Parliament LIVE: Both Houses adjourned till tomorrow
Moneycontrol.com
The Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Bill, 2019; and The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019 will be taken up for ...

EV migration needs proper planning to ensure ecosystem readiness: N Chandrasekaran
Economic Times
Arguing that changing from conventional two-wheelers to 100 per cent electric is "not like Aadhaar, not a software and print cards", the companies said ...

MCG bids to increase tax collection
Hindustan Times
According to MCG officials, during the survey, taxpayers need to provide a copy of an identification document, such as a voter ID Card, Aadhaar card, ...

Advance bail for MLA Ma Subramanian in govt land grab case
The Hindu
... and left thumb impression on the bond and the Magistrate must obtain photocopies of their Aadhaar card or bank passbook to ensure their identity.

PF Balance Check: Here are 4 ways to know your provident fund balance
Financial Express
However, such a service is available only if your UAN is activated and you have linked Aadhaar, PAN and bank details to it. SMS should be sent from ...

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14180 - Govt tables Aadhaar Amendment Bill in LS, glosses over SC’s warnings yet again - National herald

Govt tables Aadhaar Amendment Bill in LS, glosses over SC’s warnings yet again

The government, in the guise of complying with the SC judgment, only seems to be concerned about allowing all commercial entities to be part of the Aadhaar data universe, with unrestricted access


Union Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad (L) with Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Ajay Bhushan Pandey. A file picture
Union Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad (L) with Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Ajay Bhushan Pandey. A file picture

Ashlin Mathew

That Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad introduced the Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019, in the Lok Sabha on Monday is known to all. Among those who protested the tabling of the Bill was NK Premachandran of the Revolutionary Socialist Party. But what has been overlooked has been the sheer dismissal by Prasad of the concerns raised by Premachandran.
Opposing the Aadhaar Amendments Bill, Premachandran said that it violated the Supreme Court judgement of April 26, 2018 (sic) in the Justice KS Puttuswamy vs Union of India case, and allows private entities to hold Aadhaar data whereas the Supreme Court has specifically directed all Aadhaar agencies to delete Aadhaar authentication data. Premachandran added that the Bill violates the fundamental rights, namely, the right to life, the right to livelihood and the right against discrimination.
Further, Premachandran reminded the House that the government intends to amend three laws – the Aadhaar Act, 2016; the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885; and the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002. Clause 5 of the Aadhaar Amendments Bill, which proposes to amend Section 4 of the Aadhaar Act, 2016, says that mandatory authentication of an Aadhaar number holder for the provision of any service shall take place if such authentication is required by a law made by Parliament – which goes against the Supreme Court ruling that possession of Aadhaar number or Aadhaar authentication cannot be made mandatory for available any service or welfare benefit.
Premachandran also pointed that Clause 24 of the Amendment Bill, which seeks to amend Section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act, allows licensed telecom service providers to conduct Aadhaar-based authentication or offline verification and the Bill is very specific. “As rightly mentioned in Part II, the Bill allows the private entities to hold Aadhaar data, which the Supreme Court has opposed. The private entities have no authority to hold Aadhaar data for their own use. That is a specific direction which has been given by the Supreme Court. So, Clause 24 of the Bill is also against the spirit of the Constitution,” elaborated Premachandran.
Prasad dismissed all of Premachandran’s concerns. He said Aadhaar is in national interest; and Aadhaar does not violate privacy – glossing over the fact that the SC judgment did strike down sections of the 2016 Act for not meeting the stringent triple test laid down in the SC’s own Right to Privacy judgment of August 24, 2017. Prasad said the SC had mentioned that they cannot legislate the use of Aadhaar through a rule or a circular, but only by passing a law. “Hence, the law,” stated Prasad.
But, Prasad refuses to elaborate how the Aadhaar Bill is in national interests other than helping big businesses get access to personal data of citizens.
Reeling out statistics, Prasad said 68 crore people have taken SIM cards through Aadhaar and 65 crore bank accounts are linked through Aadhaar in a country of 140 crores. What he doesn’t mention is if the other forms of identification were rejected and further if Aadhaar authentication was forced while applying for the SIM Card or bank account. Then he added, “I cannot satisfy Premachandran.”
This impunity with which the government hopes to bulldoze the Bill and several other Bills is problematic. “The legislature is the last stand. If the Legislature doesn’t halt the Aadhaar project now, then there is no real recourse left for citizens. How much is Parliament acting as a conscience keeper of the government? We all forget the consequences of making Aadhaar mandatory in practice” points out Raghu Godavar, a member of Rethink Aadhaar which has been campaigning to widen awareness around the Aadhaar project.
Premachandran pointed out that since the Prime Minister was in the House, he indicated that the government had shown no indication of even introducing the Personal Data Protection Bill has not yet been introduced in Parliament. “Instead of bringing the Personal Data Protection Bill, the Government is introducing many legislations so as to have Aadhaar-based authentication. The personal rights of the people have to be protected by bringing a legislation - Personal Data Protection Bill,” he said. Other MPs wanted to raise objections to the introduction of the bill, but the Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla said they should have given notice for it earlier, even though some had.
The Aadhaar Amendments Bill needs to be seen in the backdrop of other legislation sweeping the country. “The government is keen on expanding the National Register for Citizens. Any person who has lived in the country for 180 days in the past year can apply for an Aadhaar number. But those deemed citizens by the NRC committees are being forced to enrol – and even ren-enrol for an Aadhaar. This is creating a new class of “Aadhaar-ed” citizens, which is discriminatory and also ignores the fact that by design Aadhaar is not proof of citizenship. Prasad refuses to see the problem with this” explains Raghu.
Moreover, what is in the law is not practised on the streets. Aadhaar is becoming mandatory for children in school, whatever the law might say. If you need to avail pensions, you need Aadhaar and even with Aadhaar being supposedly voluntary, exclusions from welfare benefits continue to result in starvation deaths in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and several other states.
The government has been pushing for Aadhaar-based digital payment solutions such as the NPCI’s BHIM. Unsurprisingly, Nandan Nilekani, the architect of the Aadhaar project, was part of the RBI’s High Level Committee on Deepening of Digital Payments. Ajay Bhushan Pandey, the CEO of UIDAI, is also Revenue Secretary, besides being Chairman of the GST Network. One of the proposed amendments in the Bill expands the UIDAI’s power to issue directions to any entity within the Aadhaar ecosystem, including banks, private entities and telecom companies - without any Parliamentary oversight whatsoever.
To sum, the government, in the guise of complying with the SC judgment, only seems to be concerned about allowing all commercial entities to be part of the Aadhaar data universe, with unrestricted access via amendments to existing legislation. What is being forgotten is the potential for abusing the citizen’s personal and informational privacy which the Supreme Court had warned against abundantly.

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Tuesday, June 25, 2019

14179 - AAdhaar Articles Dated 24th June 2019


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