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, March 7, 2018

12941 - Aujas working to shield Aadhaar from cyberattacks - The Hindu


BENGALURU, MARCH 04, 2018 00:00 IST

The start-up is betting big on offering cyberscurity services
Srinivas Rao is obsessive about data security. He carries two cell phones, an iPhone for official work and an Android handset for personal use. It is this kind of obsession among many mobile owners that keeps the 54-year-old CEO of cybersecurity start-up Aujas Networks on his toes and successfully manage information security risks for his clients.

These customers range from Japan‘s largest lender Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group to Aadhaar, the world’s largest domestic biometric identification system.

“You have to be paranoid and you have to be aware because clients are trusting you,” said Mr. Rao, co-founder of Aujas, in an interview.

IoT platform
The Bengaluru-based firm is betting big on managing the cybersecurity programme for Aadhaar. This includes software-as-a-service based Internet of Things (IoT) platform for the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the issuer of the unique identity number. Given the ubiquity of Aadhaar and various use cases requiring authentication, Aujas built the platform for ‘registered device management.’ It said the platform manages every device that is registered under a unique ID resulting in prevention and protection of the device from any “alien invasion” or hacking.
“This (platform) is for managing devices used by banks and telcos to authenticate Aadhaar,” explained Mr. Rao. Though Aadhaar got embroiled in data privacy security concerns, Mr. Rao said the issue is more about the privacy policy. He said the unique identification project is very mature from a security perspective. “Is the core [of Aadhaar] secure? I would absolutely say it is secure,” said Mr. Rao. “We must all be proud that a programme of this size and magnitude, probably [the] largest IT project of its kind in the world, has been done [from India],” said Mr. Rao, who co-founded Aujas in 2008. The firm, which was incubated by venture capital firm IDG Ventures India as part of its Entrepreneur-in-Residence programme, now provides services such as security intelligence, data protection, identity and access and application security in markets such as the United States, South Asia and the Middle East. The firm, which counts Aadhaar among its biggest clients in India, said it is targeting to achieve a revenue of $50 million in the next three years.
Talent crunch
At a time when there has been a spike in hacking incidents as an increasing number of Indians are going digital and doing transactions online, companies like Aujas would play a key role in thwarting cyberattacks. More than 53,000 cybersecurity incidents were observed in the country during 2017, according to a report by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).
These included phishing, website intrusions and defacements, ransomware and denial of service attacks. But the country would need one million cybersecurity professionals by 2020, according to Nasscom. And that is the one of the biggest challenges for cybersecurity firms like Aujas.

“Attracting and retaining talent is going to be a big challenge in this space,” said Mr. Rao. “Unlike traditional software [industry] where you have huge [talent] pool... there is a scarcity here.”