AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: Li Identity Solutions.

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

Showing posts with label Li Identity Solutions.. Show all posts

Thursday, August 31, 2017

11934 - RTI activist says Aadhaar contract gave foreign firms access to unencrypted data - TNN

RTI activist says Aadhaar contract gave foreign firms access to unencrypted data

Chethan Kumar | TNN | Aug 30, 2017, 02:40 IST

HIGHLIGHTS

Contracts signed with foreign firms by UIDAI show that they got “full access” to classified data
This was revealed through an RTI application filed by Bengaluru-based Col Matthew Thomas

BENGALURU: Contrary to the Centre's claims, contracts signed with foreign firms by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), custodian of Aadhaar data, show that they got "full access" to classified data including fingerprints, iris scan info, and personal information like date of birth, address and mobile number of the applicants. They were also allowed to store the data for seven years.

This was revealed through an RTI application filed by Bengaluru-based Col Matthew Thomas, one of the petitioners in the right to privacy case currently being heard in Supreme Court.

The RTI reply showed that the nature of the contracts contradicted UIDAI's statements that no private entity had access to unencrypted Aadhaar data. The contract with one of the biometric service providers (BSPs), L-1 Identity Solutions Operating Co Pvt Ltd, headquartered in US, says that the company was given Aadhaar data access "as part of its job". (L-1 has been taken over by French transnational Safran Group). Morpho and Accenture Services Pvt Ltd are two other firms that were given identical contracts with two year (2010 to 2012) Aadhaar data access.

Clause 15.1 of the contract, titled 'Data and Hardware', says that the firm, by virtue of the contract "may have access to personal data of the purchaser (UID), and/or a third party or any resident of India..." Further, Clause 3, which deals with privacy, says that the BSP could "collect, use, transfer, store and process the data". It also says that the BSP shall process all personal data in accordance with applicable law and regulation and should not disclose such information. The contract, however, does not define 'personal data'.

An advocate familiar with the subject explained: "If the contract does not define it, then we must go by the definitions given by UIDAI as part of the project." According to UIDAI, personal data includes both biometric (fingerprints and iris) and demographic data (name, date of birth, address, mobile number). The latter may also include bank details, licence number, PAN number, passport number and other information furnished as part of KYC.

Another clause in the contract says that the firm should maintain the biometric template created by it and that in the event of termination or expiry of contract, it "shall transfer all the proprietary templates to UIDAI". Col Thomas says: "If the firms did not have the biometric data, what were they expected to transfer? Why can't the UIDAI just come out in the open with all the contract details?" Though UIDAI maintained that it has purchased the software and hardware to roll out the Adhaar programme, the contracts show that the BSPs were responsible for providing hardware for the first one crore enrolments.

TOP COMMENT

so Aadhar is tool prepared for selling 1ndia on whole sale rate at international market by compromising country''s wealth.

So we are sold.. isn;t it.?

Be U

A cyber expert said: "If the hardware is also installed by the firms, then there must have been thorough checking to see if they contained anything that could steal data." UIDAI has said that no data ever left its servers and premises and every bit of information is safe and secure.

Ravi Visvesvaraya Prasad, a telecom and IT expert, said, "One cannot check for duplication without having raw data. If foreign firms had access to such data, as is clear by the language in the contract, it is potentially dangerous and needs to be looked into."

Click here to watch the video

Sunday, March 6, 2016

9376 - Delhi HC admits petition seeking copies of contracts between UIDAI and firms - Live Mint

Delhi HC admits petition seeking copies of contracts between UIDAI and firms

The contracts were for various purposes including the provision of biometric services

Apurva Viswanath

New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Tuesday took up a petition which has sought copies of contracts between the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and companies collecting biometric data from citizens.

The contracts were for various purposes including the provision of biometric services and were between UIDAI purporting to act on behalf of the government of India and two foreign companies.

Petitioner Mathew Thomas who sought this information said this data must be made available to all Aadhaar holders. Justice Manmohan on Tuesday allowed the petitioner to include the two companies in the proceedings. The two companies are Identity Solutions, an Australia-based company that makes specialized fingerprint readers and Accenture, a company registered in the US that uses retinal scanning.

In 2013, the petitioner had filed for access to the contracts under the Right to Information Act and the central information officer had directed UIDAI to furnish copies of the contract. The court noted that UIDAI did not object to disclosing the information before the appellate body of the information commission. The petitioner told the court that, however, certain annexes of the contracts were withheld.

“We cannot disclose the technical aspects of the contract as it is patented technology of the company,” a lawyer representing UIDAI told the court.

Thomas is also one of the petitioners in a bunch of cases pending before the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of Aadhaar. Some of the cases deal with Aadhaar numbers being made mandatory to avail certain government benefits and services.

Others deal with the number itself being in violation of an individual’s privacy, especially in the absence of any backing regulation or oversight, and still others deal with a possible misuse of the information. The apex court has referred the question on whether Aadhaar violates an individual’s right to privacy under the Constitution.

The UIDAI does not have any legislative backing and was constituted by a notification in 2009 under the erstwhile Planning Commission.

As of now, 920 million Indian citizens have been allotted Aadhaar numbers. The case will be heard next on 3 September.

Apurva Vishwanath

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

2359 - UIDAI vendors complain of non-payment since 16 months - Economic Times

UIDAI vendors complain of non-payment since 16 months

7 FEB, 2012, 03.13AM IST, HARSIMRAN JULKA,ET BUREAU

NEW DELHI: After battling external conflicts, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is now plagued with its internal problems as IT vendors are complaining of non-payment for over 16 months for the Aadhaar numbers being issued. The firms are also asking for scrapping of its largest managed service provider tender due to eight-month delay, which has hiked IT hardware prices.

IT vendors for the world's largest biometric rollout by the UIDAI have been complaining of not receiving money 'for even a single Aadhaar number'. Together three IT consortiums led by MindTree-Accenture, Tech-Mahindra, and L1 ID Solutions, have issued over 11 crore Aadhaar numbers out of the 17 crore people enrolled for Aadhaar.

Unique ID Authority of India appointed the three large consortiums in July 2010, which were responsible for issuing unique ID numbers based upon biometrics of residents. Their mandate was to issue about 20 crore Aadhaar numbers, starting September, 2010.

The contract was for 200 crore, and Accenture had bid about 2.75 per Aadhaar number issued, which other two had to comply with. Currently about 11 crore Aadhaar numbers have been issued worth about 30 crore, divided nearly equally among the three, which the companies feel is not disbursed due to bureaucratic hurdles. A Unique ID Authority spokesperson did not answer an ET questionnaire on the issues raised about non-payment. "We have invested over $10 million in the project, with over 5 of investment for each Aadhaar number generated, hoping to amortise it in future with volume.

We haven't been paid a single penny since we started work almost 16 months ago," said an official of one of the IT companies, on condition of anonymity. Another vendor for UIDAI told ET that since the authority has no expertise in testing the number's authenticity, they are still not accepted on paper. "Very few agencies in the world have the capability to authenticate a number based on biometric standard.

But we can't be penalized for non acceptance, since we have been issuing numbers to large number of people every day," the vendor added. Besides, tech service providers are also frustrated with almost an 8 month delay in award of its largest managed service provider contract for which they bid in May, 2011.

The MSP will form the backbone of Aadhaar project, as it will handle the data repository and IT infrastructure.