AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 12734 - UIDAI's Virtual ID, limited KYC does little to protect Aadhaar data already collected, say critics

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, January 14, 2018

12734 - UIDAI's Virtual ID, limited KYC does little to protect Aadhaar data already collected, say critics

UIDAI's Virtual ID, limited KYC does little to protect Aadhaar data already collected, say critics

BusinessToday.in New Delhi Last Updated: January 12, 2018 | 17:06 IST

Aadhaar-issuing body, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), had barely started patting itself on the back for introducing the Virtual ID concept, what CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey called "one of biggest recent innovations in this field", when detractors came crawling out of the woodwork, all guns blazing.

"Under compulsion, millions of persons have already shared Aadhaar number with many service providers. New security layer is like locking the stable after horses have bolted," tweeted P. Chidambaram, Congress veteran and former finance minister. This is not just an opposition party member taking potshots at the government. As of last month, close to 14 crore out of about 30 crore Permanent Account Numbers (PANs) had already been linked to Aadhaar and 70% of the estimated 100 crore bank accounts had been seeded. This will be the case for insurance policies as well as all government-sponsored welfare schemes and services since the Supreme Court ruling to extend the deadline for mandatory Aadhaar linking came just a fortnight before the government's December 21 deadline. So how does the new two-tier security system protect all that Aadhaar data already collected by sundry agencies?

The short answer is that it does not. According to media reports, banks and other service providers have not been asked to delete stored Aadhaar data from their databases. The only directive is to enforce the new security system within the June 1 deadline. In the absence of a legal mandate, agencies can very well choose to retain any Aadhaar data previously collected on their servers, leaving it open to any number of security breaches in the future.

So, it would appear that the new VID and limited KYC norms are good ideas, just too late in arriving. Only procrastinators putting off linking Aadhaar to essential services stand to gain, unless the government decides to revoke all existing Aadhaar cards and issue fresh 12-digit unique identification numbers post June 1.

Where the new security system definitely scores is on the privacy front. To remind you, VID a temporary, 16-digit, randomly-generated number that an Aadhaar holder can use for authentication or KYC services along with his/her fingerprint instead in lieu of the Aadhaar number. The VID together with biometrics of the user would give any authorized agency, say, a mobile company, limited details like name, address and photograph, which are enough for any verification. You can generate/replace Virtual IDs on the UIDAI website, Aadhaar mobile app and at enrolment centres.

Since the system-generated VID will be mapped to an individual's Aadhaar number at the back end, it will do away with the need for the user to share Aadhaar number with sundry service agencies. This will, in turn, reduce the collection of Aadhaar numbers by various agencies. VIDs being temporary cannot be de-duplicated and as an added precaution, agencies that undertake authentication will not be allowed to generate VIDs on behalf of Aadhaar holders.

Furthermore, under limited KYC, UIDAI will evaluate all Authentication User Agencies (AUAs) and split them into two categories: Global AUAs and Local AUAs. Only agencies whose services, by law, require them to store the Aadhaar number-qualified as Global AUAs-will enjoy access to full demographic details of an individual. All the remaining AUAs will be branded as Local AUAs and will neither get access to full KYC, nor can they store the Aadhaar number on their systems. Instead, they will get a tokenised number issued by UIDAI to identify their customers. The 72 character alphanumeric 'UID Token' for your Aadhaar number will reportedly be different for every authentication body you approach so agencies will no longer be able to merge databases, thus enhancing privacy substantially.

However, there's a problem here, too. As Pranesh Prakash, Policy Director of Bengaluru-based Centre for Internet and Society, told The Hindu, "unless all entities are required to use VIDs or UID tokens, and are barred from storing Aadhaar numbers, the new measures won't really help."

In a recent online survey, conducted by social engagement platform LocalCircles, 52% of 15,000 respondents said they feared that their Aadhaar data might not be safe from unauthorised access by hackers and information sellers. The UIDAI's latest move does little to allay this doubt.

with PTI inputs