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

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

12480 - Aadhaar Articles Dated 10th December 2017



The Hindu
More than seven years after the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) began issuing Aadhaar, which has now become vital for everyone from the new-borns to super senior citizens, the enrolment and correction remain a painful task for the applicants. The vast network of enrolment and ...
Assam logjam on Aadhaar - The Telegraph



The Indian Express
If you are concerned about the misuse of your Aadhaar cards, which are used for authentication to avail of wide spectrum of services, then worry no more. Now, users can check when and where have their biometric ID's have been used. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) that manages ...



Times of India
He said these kits are the ones that are usually operated by banks for verifying Aadhaar while opening new accounts. At present, the district has 196 centres, of which 84 are in the Pune Municipal Corporation area while 49 are operational in the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal limits. As many as 63 kits are ...






Hindustan Times
In the lecture he says “A sudden digitalisation in an emerging economy like ours will be devastating for the poor”. This is what seems to be happening with the Aadhaar-based biometric card authentication which the economist Jean Dreze says is “being pushed relentlessly by the central government.”.






NewsClick
Two months earlier, the Aadhaar-based payment system had redirected her pension money to a different account, without her knowledge. She was also denied her food grain entitlement in August and November. Jharkhand government claims it has cancelled 11.6 lakh ration cards which were found to ...






Times of India
Explaining as to why he approached the court, D S Bhat said: "Aadhaar invades our privacy. Currently, SATS tracks all records including attendance and behaviour of a student right from Class 1 to till he completes his education. There may be chances that the employers go through this data before ...






Times Now
Patna: It has come to light that a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative in Bihar managed to acquire an Aadhaar card, PAN card and a passport in his name when he was staying in Gopalganj district as a student. Read: Aadhaar leaks: Should the government pause and fix the problem before forcing it on us?








Firstpost
A few weeks ago, the banks had spoiled his dream of delivering a leakage-free Aadhaar-linked waiver scheme. They had turned in spurious lists of defaulters (beneficiaries of loan waiver) and brought the disbursal process to a complete standstill. The waiver process was to benefit 71.11 lakh ...





Deccan Chronicle
Hyderabad: As the deadline for linking Aadhaar with bank accounts is fast approaching, more people are lining up to do the needful. However, banks in Hyderabad are witnessing normal rush. The deadline is December 31, 2017. T. Venkat Ramaiah, general secretary of the Bank Employees' Federation ...



Times of India
CHENNAI: Saying that days are not far off when advocates have to link Aadhaar to certificates of lawyers in order to verify their credentials, Madras high court has refused to relax its recent order mandating that they affix their photographs on vakkalats. Justice S Vaidyanathan, rejecting requests made by ...






The Hindu
Justice Srikrishna told the panellists that Aadhaar or the unique identification number had empowered the people. But in situations where the State wants all the information about citizens from different service providers because of its suspicions related to terrorism or criminal activity, he asked, what is ...






The Hindu
A number of measures are required to protect law-abiding citizens from mass surveillance and misuse of their personal data, according to top technology and legal experts. The measures include issuing of tokens by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) instead of Aadhaar numbers and ...






Chandigarh Metro
India's largest insurance company, Life Insurance Corporation of India, has recently stated that insurance holders need to link their Aadhaar number and PAN card details to the LIC Policies. The corporation has stated that all the life insurance holders would need to link their Aadhaar number as well as ...






The Navhind Times
Usha Ramanathan, who has been raising the aadhaar issue for some time now, is a expert on the law and poverty. To readers in Goa, it might be interesting that another articulate spokesperson against aadhaar emerges in the shape of Anupam Saraph, who had a strong connection with Goa.






NewsX
Sheikh Abdul Nayeem, an alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative, who had stayed in Bihar until March 2017, successfully managed to acquire an Aadhaar card, PAN card and a passport in his name. Terrorist organizations like Indian Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) have used strong visual ...






TopYaps
Recently, India's ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin added a fresh feather into his already illustrious cap by becoming the fastest bowler to scalp 300 Test wickets, and broke Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee's 36-year-old record. He also became the fifth Indian bowler to reach the 300-plus wickets ...






The Telegraph
New Delhi: The mother of an 11-year-old Jharkhand girl, who died of alleged starvation after her family was denied food because their ration card had not been linked to Aadhaar, has contradicted the state government's claim that malaria killed her daughter. At a media conference organised by the Right ...






The New Indian Express
“We had moved machinery all the way to her ward on third floor in Wenlock Hospital,” recollected Naik of Aadhaar issuing cell. Following an appeal from public, Additional Deputy Commissioner Kumar acted swiftly to remove the bottlenecks in the housing scheme. After contacting Beltangady Panchayat ...






Livemint
The reason I was among those invited was because for two years now, my colleague N.S. Ramnath and I have been researching the ecosystem evolving around Project Aadhaar. Between the both of us, we have been interviewing multiple sets of people and asking questions like what does this means ...






India Legal (satire)
The entire country is in a panic following orders from the GOI—government of India or Mai Baap as some call it—that you need to link your Aadhaar number to all the services you enjoy and pay for, private and public, otherwise they will be cancelled. In other words, you will cease to exist. In fact, if the ...






Deccan Herald
As per Section 2(g) of the Aadhaar Act, 2016, "biometric information means photograph, fingerprint, iris scan, or such other biological attributes of an individual as may be specified by regulations." The reference to "such other biological attributes" makes it clear that voice sample and DNA profiling may ...






The Hitavada
When they were entering the exam hall, officials were verifying their Aadhaar card and other details through bio-metric machine. During verification process, many students were not allowed to enter the hall as their data was mismatching. When officials verified the details of examinees in the hall, server ...






अमर उजाला
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