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, January 12, 2018

12706 - Flaw in UIDAI’s SMS service lets anyone with your Aadhaar number trace your bank info - Hindustan Times


The flaw could see more sophisticated and targeted social engineering attacks, researchers say.

TECH Updated: Jan 10, 2018 17:34 Ist

HT Correspondent 
Hindustan Times

The flaw resides in the USSD service that UIDAI publicly shared in December last year.(Vipin Kumar/Hindustan Times)

In light of media reports about access to a specialised Aadhaar website being sold for as little as Rs 500, an SMS flaw in UIDAI’s service has become apparent that allows anyone who has your Aadhaar number to figure out your bank details.
The flaw resides in a USSD service that UIDAI publicly shared in December last year. First reported by Gadgets.NDTV, the service allows anyone to check if their bank account has been linked to their Aadhaar number, as has been mandated by the authority.

To find whether an account has been linked, the procedure goes like this:
1. Dial *99*99*1# from your phone.
2. A dialogue box is prompted on the screen, which asks the user to enter their Aadhaar number.
3. Confirm whether the Aadhaar number you have entered is correct.
4. At this point, the service states whether any bank account has been linked to the provided Aadhaar number. If a bank account is linked, the name of the bank account is displayed.




While that’s a useful and quick service, a flaw in it has been reported by users this week. According to researchers, the USSD service can be fed with Aadhaar number of other people and it fetches their bank details. Put simply, if you entered the Aadhaar number of any random person, you can find with which bank they have an account.

@UIDAI Secure this service with mobile OTP verification ASAP. Otherwise it's very unsafe and foolish. 


Apparently, anybody can check the bank account linked to any #Aadhaar number. What an idea. 

Not even only urs, u can check anyone's bank details, if u know his/her Aadhaar no.
By dialing *99*99*1# , it ask for aadhaar no.
No OTP required, no registered mobile no. required.
This how our data have been secured!!! 
Detailed article published in economic times. 
The problem, security researchers say, there is no authentication system in place to verify if the person who has requested the bank information is the rightful owner of the associated Aadhaar card. For instance, UIDAI could have implemented an SMS-based OTP service. This would have alerted the rightful owner of the Aadhaar card that their account information has been requested.

Knowing such information could come in handy to hackers, marketers and spammers, researchers say. In the recent months, we have witnessed Aadhaar details of people surfacing online on a few government websites. Keeping this in mind, a hacker can “now extract your bank name too along with all your other private information including mobile number, address, etc,” Ankush Johar, Director at security firm Infosec Ventures said.

Read more
  •  

  • To protect privacy, UIDAI introduces ‘Virtual ID’ for Aadhaar-card holders 


  • Edward Snowden says reporter who exposed Aadhaar ‘breach’ deserves an award 


  • “In such a scenario, it would be extremely easy to socially engineer victims over call or email as the attacker will have targeted information about his victim. This is called Spear Phishing and can be extremely dangerous,” he added.

    In such attacks, a person gives the victim a phone call and pretends to be from a certain bank. They now have your Aadhaar number with them as well, which could potentially lend them more credibility in gaining the trust of victims. This is just one example, there could be a myriad of ways vicious minds could make use of such sensitive information.

    A prominent security researcher, who wished to remain anonymous, also lambasted this oversight by UIDAI. “This is a poorly designed feature. Can easily be abused for social engineering,” the researcher said.