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

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

12961 - Aadhaar: Universal access is for the greater good - Live Mint


Former UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani on the benefits of Aadhaar, including introducing e-KYC

Last Published: Tue, Feb 13 2018. 04 03 AM IST

Aadhaar increases reach and inclusion, where markets have traditionally failed. Photo: Indranil Bhoumik/Mint

Aadhaar was designed to give a unique, digital identity to a billion people. But today, we are caught up debating the identity of Aadhaar itself. There are many who want to tell us it’s a savings scheme, and then go on to tell us how it is an ineffective savings scheme. But as someone who had some part to play in the creation of Aadhaar, I can assert we always thought of Aadhaar as universal digital infrastructure, not just a scheme.

Because of this confusion, we have controversies that we would never have for other infrastructure projects. The government would never refuse building a highway, because smugglers could potentially drive on it. No one said that we should destroy the highways we’ve already built and millions use, because not everyone owns cars. Similarly, no one would ever say that if the government is building the highway, only state-owned vehicles, not private car and truck owners, should drive on it. The primary question we need to ask is if building this infrastructure with universal access is for the greater public good. In the case of Aadhaar, universal access is for the greater good for four reasons.

First is that Aadhaar increases reach and inclusion, where markets have traditionally failed. Take mutual funds. Before Aadhaar-enabled eKYC, the cost of doing a Know Your Customer physically was roughly Rs1,500. It made sense to only acquire customers who could invest at least Rs3,00,000. Today, we have ‘mutual funds sahi hai,’ driven by lower-on-boarding costs due to eKYC which is just a few rupees. People can now invest in SIPs (systematic investment plans) with amounts as low as Rs100, instead of storing their money under their mattresses. In the last year alone, the mutual funds asset base from small towns went up 46% to Rs4.1 trillion, decreasing our reliance on foreign capital and broadening the investor base dramatically.

Second, it is an unfortunate fact that whenever the elite have seceded from government infrastructure to private schools, healthcare, transport, etc., the corresponding public services have suffered. There is very little motivation to improve the infrastructure when it only serves the poor who do not have a voice. Universal access and usage is needed to keep the public service providers on their toes as supporters and critics will be vocal about their demand from the infrastructure.

Third, whenever the state stops the production of public goods, the private sector steps in to fill the vacuum. Think about digital identity. The current most popular providers of digital identity are global tech giants. It is their stated objective to know you, better than you know yourself, so that they can sell ads and products to you. In fact, these businesses are so profitable, they are able to cross-subsidize other services and offer them free, thus collecting even more of your data. Moreover, this data does not reside on Indian soil and is accessible to foreign governments. We do not have sovereignty over our own data, and cannot decide what happens to it. Remember you are the product!

I would much rather trust the state’s institutions which have judicial and parliamentary oversight, than the benevolence of data-driven businesses. While their objective is to create a smart, all-knowing ID, Aadhaar is designed to be the opposite—a dumb ID. It only shares your demographic details and a photograph with private players after taking your consent, instead of deep profiles about your likes, browsing patterns and desires. 

There is no doubt that we need to have strong privacy and security controls around Aadhaar. The need for security and privacy is not an argument against private access, it is in fact a great reason to allow universal access. Universal access also means universal oversight. The democratic checks and balances that we build to regulate private access will also regulate government actions.

This is not the first time that advanced technology infrastructure built by public money flourished when opened up to universal access. The US government was the only one who could create the satellite infrastructure necessary to create something like GPS. It was originally only built for US Army use, but the receivers were costly. Today, US soldiers themselves use off-the-shelf cheap GPS receivers based on private market innovation. The same story is true of the internet itself. Imagine if DARPA (defense advanced research projects agency) had kept the internet to government use only and never opened up to innovation by private players. The next time you tap on your smartphone and a cab miraculously appears at your door step in two minutes, remember it was because publicly funded digital infrastructure was made available for innovation and universal access!

Nandan Nilekani is former chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India and is currently chairman of Infosys Ltd. The views expressed are personal.


First Published: Tue, Feb 13 2018. 03 36 AM IST