Master Card: The UID Faces Opposition

Excellent article. Sometimes High tech has its own limitations when dealing with social problems. Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India

Technically biometrics as an id factor, is deeply flawed in concept. This stems from a fundamental requirement of any id system - ability to withdraw a compromised authenticating factor. If your email password is compromised you can reset it to a new one Try doing that with your fingers and eyes. By the way both are spoofable rather easily. Operational aspects, even in small homogeneous groups have been shown to have inherent problems. There has NEVER been a study on large heterogeneous populations. Further even the studies on small groups, in well controlled enrollment and verification environments, shows gaping holes. Even if the environment were to be better than theses studies, there would be humongous number of false negatives. This is borne out by the recent Mid-day article where many women who work as house helps - in amchi Mumbai - were sent back as their fingerprints cannot be recorded. This at the first stage and in all probability the best setup. We have not even got around to discussing fakes and systemic problems in the process or checking out our rural populace. Finally one should note that locking up all citizens in a surveillance net and placing them for investigation by the very same crooks who are supposed to be kept out, reeks of an extreme feudal mentality. Dont want to get mugged, dont step into the street. Dont want to get raped, dont go out at night. Ya these are statements by government officials. How about these officials being made to walk from the Ghatkopar station after the last train, to their home in Pantnagar. We would ofcourse arm them with a UID number, which they can use for defense - magic mantra like. Maybe they can show their finger too, so that a would be mugger flees in fright. "You have nothing to hide if you are not illegal" is a facile proposition born out of ignorance of both, what constitutes privacy and the extent to which a government has control over it's citizens. People who propose the "nothingtohide" argument should speak to the victims of untouchability, rape, illegal arrests, child trafficking etc. and get themselves a real education. Guys dont believe the crap dished out by the UIDAI - it is worse than lies, damned lies and statistics all put together.

Revealing the motive of the UID Number, Captain Raghu Raman, Chief Executive Officer, National Intelligence Grid under Union Home Ministry in his paper titled 'A NATION OF NUMB PEOPLE' says, "If the commercial czars don't begin protecting their empires now, they may find the lines of control cutting across those very empires." This proposed NIAI Bill must be looked at along with other Bills in the offing such as Draft Land Titling Bill, 2010, Draft Paper on Privacy Bill, 2010, Draft DNA Profiling Act, 2007 and Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations (PIII) for a National Knowledge Network. Besides this National Intelligence Grid (Natgrid), meant to integrate existing 21 databases with Central and state government agencies and other organisations, and National Population Register (which is quite different from Census) will end up undertaking surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting of Indian residents. Admittedly, the Draft Privacy Bill states, "There is no data protection statute in the country." On UID Number, the Draft Paper on Privacy Bill states, "Data privacy and the need to protect personal information is almost never a concern when data is stored in a decentralized manner. Quite menacingly, the Draft Paper on Privacy Bill asserts, "Once this (UID) happens, the separation of data that currently exists between multiple databases will vanish."

The statement of concern issued by the eminent citizens including former judges, jurists, educationists stated, "UIDAI has been constituted on the basis of a GoI (Government of India) notification and there is a fundamental risk to civil liberties"

It admitted that "India will be the first country (in the world) to implement a biometric-based unique ID system for its residents on a national scale." Neither the Prime Minister nor the Planning Commission has taken cognizance of abandonment of such UID Number scheme in countries like the US, Australia and now in the UK. In the UK, their Home Secretary abandoned the project because it considered it `intrusive bullying' by the state, and that the government intended to be the `servant' of the people, and not their `master'. In the late 1990s, the Supreme Court of Philippines struck down the President's Executive Order A.O 308 which instituted a biometric based national ID system calling it unconstitutional on two grounds: the overreach of the executive over the legislative powers of the congress and invasion of privacy. The same is applicable in India.

UID is a progressive step and all it's criticism are without merit. US too has a Social Security Number (SSN) system and UID is being devised on those lines. We are a 1 billion population - for it's effective governance, for crime control and for better tracking UID is something what government agencies require. And as for privacy concerns - what is that general public has that they want to hide ?. Why does people have to have any problem if Security agency browse thru their mobile records or health reports or even banking transactions. If it's for increasing security of the country - this is no concern. Yeah corrupt Politicians, Land mafias, bollywood folks with connections to underworld have much to fear and they are the ones who do not want UID or any similar system to be implemented in the country.

I read this article and it is really a good for India but with lots of changes. We understand if UID will come in full power in India it can stop corruption, misusing of power, improve PDS system and there is lots of other benefits which we can get it like RTA. I checked one website related to UID www uidiacards com and according to that Yes through UID we can bring the changes in India. But for that we have to come together and keep far to Politicians and Bureaucrats to make it much better.

Any thing in the world can be looked at pessimistically and this article is one such. The author did not try to look at the information available and try to educate himself. There are some people actively engaged in spreading mis-information about cost of the project, possible capability for government and possible mis-use of information. There is a difference between aadhaar project and privacy. There is a different between aadhaar project and how benefits are delivered. Aadhaar helps to provide easy access for poor and migrant people to ration card and other government benefits and gives them an identity with out hassles. The so called civil rights people are shouting at the wrong place, they should be focusing on better privacy laws and controlling access to aadhaar information. Opposing aadhaar as a whole is unsubstantiated and just plan obstructive.