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Aadhaar: Ushering in a Commercialized Era of Surveillance in India

97 points by bhuthesh_r 9y ago

chrisjohn93 9y ago
Do you think data of each person is saved over the Internet? In my opinion Government of India must create a high security for AAdhar data. But in India Aadhar data is available for everyone with a just simple click.
anilgulecha 9y ago
The pro: There have been significant fiscal benefits - fake personas have been completely eliminated in the welfare schemes that are aadhar linked, saving a lot for the taxpayers. The con: Government has all your biometrics, and can technically mine data from connected services to build a very detailed profile of you (hypothetically). IMO, both sides have valid points, and so it ends up being about which side the ruling government wants to fall towards.
- tryprasannan 9y ago
  Most (all?) savings claims by govt are at best projected numbers. For those interested in an analysis of the savings claim and some of the other myths propagated by govt, see the 3 part analysis by Anand (https://twitter.com/iam_anandv https://twitter.com/iam_anandv) linked below Part 1 - https://www.medianama.com/2017/04/223-nandan-nilekani-aadhaar/ https://www.medianama.com/2017/04/223-nandan-nilekani-aadhaa... Part 2 - http://www.medianama.com/2017/04/223-aadhaar-nandan-nilekani/ http://www.medianama.com/2017/04/223-aadhaar-nandan-nilekani... Part 3 - https://www.medianama.com/2017/06/223-aadhaar-lpg-scheme/ https://www.medianama.com/2017/06/223-aadhaar-lpg-scheme/
  - truemen 9y ago
    Your post needs more visibility. I've taken the liberty to post it as a direct comment.
- DarkKomunalec 9y ago
  > hypothetically lol P.S.: I'm sure replies such as 'lol' are frowned upon, but I think in this case it conveys the idea perfectly and concisely.
- fractalb 9y ago
  > There have been significant fiscal benefits - fake personas have been completely eliminated in the welfare schemes that are aadhar linked, saving a lot for the taxpayers. Oh I didn't know that. I used to blame politicians for our sorry state.
  - wtmt 9y ago
    Please check the links posted by tryprasannan above and also https://rethinkaadhaar.in/ https://rethinkaadhaar.in/ . All the savings numbers by the government are bogus claims. The poor continue to be affected by quantity and quality fraud when it comes to subsidized food entitlements. Aadhaar cannot solve that. It has added one more layer for corruption in many places instead.
- jiraaya 9y ago
  > There have been significant fiscal benefits - fake personas have been completely eliminated in the welfare schemes that are aadhar linked, saving a lot for the taxpayers. I'm deeply suspicious of any unqualified statements. It is extremely hard, if not impossible to prove your proposition.
  - throwaway274783 9y ago
    Usha Ramanathan has noted many times that the so called 'savings' are due to two factors: global fall in oil prices, and more worryingly due to the denial of services from biometric issues. Someone here worried it can be use d for genocide, You know what ? It's already happening.
- wtmt 9y ago
  > The pro: There have been significant fiscal benefits - fake personas have been completely eliminated in the welfare schemes that are aadhar linked, saving a lot for the taxpayers. Sorry, you seem to be misinformed. If you look at Rethink Aadhaar [1] and its Twitter feed [2], you'd see how state governments were weeding out fake personas even without and before Aadhaar, and that Aadhaar by itself didn't make a big dent. All the claims of savings have reasons other than deduplication (including lies and excluding hundreds of thousands of genuine beneficiaries from welfare that they're legally entitled to). What Aadhaar has really done is excluded poor people, manual laborers whose biometrics cannot be verified, those who live far from where their entitlements are given (forcing them to visit multiple times instead of working to earn money or live their lives), those who're in areas of poor network connectivity (which is really huge in India). People have literally died, because Aadhaar and the governments' blatant disregard of the Supreme Court orders to keep it optional have excluded them and treated them as non-persons and non-citizens. Sorry, after reading up about all this for quite sometime, I feel so strongly about what's been happening that I'm going to be quite harsh here. Aadhaar is a genocide enabler that the government is using and turning a blind eye to. One cannot even take anybody to court for any failures or identity thefts on this matter, because that right is solely reserved for the UIDAI through the Aadhaar Act. And UIDAI would promptly respond or take action only if you're a famous cricketer (like Dhoni). The rest of them can keep trying the call center number 1947 and pray that the Gods listen and do something. [1]: https://rethinkaadhaar.in/ https://rethinkaadhaar.in/ [2]: https://twitter.com/no2uid https://twitter.com/no2uid
bdeorus 9y ago
The whole purpose of the project was to provide means of identification of people that didn't have any kind of document – passport, driving license, etc. Identification of people is crucial in regions where some people receive subsidies as ensures it reaches the right people. It's a shame this platform is being potentially used to violate citizen's privacy. Maybe a EU GDPR-esque regulation would balance the control on where private information is used back to the citizen.
- wtmt 9y ago
  > The whole purpose of the project was to provide means of identification of people that didn't have any kind of document – passport, driving license, etc. That was just the guise under which it was launched. Aadhaar has been a poorly thought out and poorly implemented solution that's still looking for problems. Responses to RTI (Right to Information) queries have shown that 99.7% of people who enrolled for Aadhaar did so using existing identification documents. Only 0.3% enrolled without identity documents using the "introducer" system. [1] [1]: http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/very-few-indians-didn-t-have-id-proof-before-aadhaar/story-0v4U95UH57i0O0snYE1EeN.html http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/very-few-indians-didn-t-...
acdjuiamadfn 9y ago
It took gas connection 6 months (or upto years) and now I get it in 3 fucking hours. Same for license and what not. Sure there are problems to be fixed but lets fix basic problems first
- aangjie 9y ago
  Bro, just got aadhaar fingerprint auth rejected two days in a row. Don't think i'll get it to work anytime soon. Local states' aadhaar auth rejection seems to be 30% rejection rate. (For first 3 months of 2017).
- wtmt 9y ago
  Those changes have little to do with Aadhaar. Efficiency in delivery could be achieved despite Aadhaar. If you look at the savings figures and all the analysis put in by many people, you'd understand that the government is publishing bogus figures. In the case of cooking gas (LPG), even the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) disproved the claims of huge savings.
rajadigopula 9y ago
Yet the irony is - The govt. will never dare to link it with voter registration. And no one questions, as everyone knows why!
- jiraaya 9y ago
  I hope they don't. Do you even realize what you are talking about! If they did that, it is easy to conceive a system that can determine whom you voted for (at a certain level of confidence). That kind of information can have potentially harmful consequences for many.
  - rajadigopula 9y ago
    You don't need to link your vote to aadhaar. Vote can be anonymized, but polling booths can still check and identify voters using aadhaar and easily avoid duplicate votes & rigging.
    - NDT 9y ago
      ^ wholeheartedly agree.
    - srisa 9y ago
      If online verification is used, issues of no-connectivity/poor-connectivity/latency can cause problems. Polling units are sent to remote corners of the country. Loading the polling unit with aadhar database can be one approach. Very few know (relative to the number of personnel involved in the polling process), as to which polling unit will go to which polling station. Trying to load constituency specific database into polling unit will increase the surface area of the people who have to know which unit goes where. Loading the aadhar database of full constituency into polling units might not be technically feasible.
- calvinbhai 9y ago
  Here's why https://twitter.com/muglikar_?ref_src=twsrc%5Eappleosx%7Ctwcamp%5Esafari%7Ctwgr%5Esearch https://twitter.com/muglikar_?ref_src=twsrc%5Eappleosx%7Ctwc...
pushparajxa 9y ago
This is on steps to provide Universal Basic Income on the long run. That which requires ID & bank account for every person to deposit cash.
- jitix 9y ago
  This is actually one of the long term plans. Like another comment said it's very difficult to identify who's a citizen and who's not, so people are likely to give up some privacy for getting other benefits. In fact most people outside of the urban areas don't even give a fk about privacy and are merely looking forward to getting food for the next meal. So in India the people's priorities are very different than that in US/EU.
  - wtmt 9y ago
    Firstly, Aadhaar is for residents of India, not just citizens. Anyone who has resided for more than half a year in the country can get it. Many places take the Aadhaar number or just a photocopy/print of the image as proof and provide other real identities. Even the passport office has started accepting Aadhaar, which makes it easier for resident, non-citizens to get an Indian passport and claim citizenship. This whole charade is going to hurt Indians of today and future generations for a long time.
    - jitix 9y ago
      It can be obtained by "legal" residents, although I don't think legal residents can get passports on the basis of their aadhar number. Aadhar fundamentally solves the problem of illegal residents and nefarious foreign agents getting valid credentials, but I do agree that there are a lot of corner cases where they have been able to obtain one. Another issue is that ration cards and subsidies accounts (including LPG subsidies in urban areas) can be duplicated - meaning that one person can (and do) open multiple accounts. Tying these to Aadhar will definitely reduce the abuse prevalent in the system.
      - wtmt 9y ago
dhaneshnm 9y ago
Indian left wing has been calling the current ruling party and the government "Fascist"[1] for a while now. So there is quite a bit of fear mongering regarding Adhar, as left suspects that govt. will eventually use this to crack down on the dissenting voices. But for those who don't share that opinion, this is part that needs attention, "The guidelines could have come earlier, and given large data leaks in the past may also be redundant. Nevertheless, it is reassuring to see practices for keeping information safe and the idea of positive informed consent being reinforced for government departments."ie, Though delayed, corrective measures are being taken. 1.http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/sitaram-yechury-bjp-government-fascist-authoritarian-modi-prakash-karat-cpm-3033385/ http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/sita...
- dragonsh 9y ago
  It's real and existential threat, given Indian govt is lousy when it comes to data protection. Indeed all aadhaar data is floating in many corporations especially the one supporting current govt. No laws on its misuse and govt cannot be taken to court. Indeed by blaming and divisive politics current govt is very capable to divert attention from real issue and blame left and calls all those opposing it enemies.
  - ashwinm 9y ago
    You have no idea what you are talking about my biased friend.
    - wtmt 9y ago
      Please dispute points with explanations or counterpoints instead of condescending dismissals. It looks like you are the one who does not have enough information to counter GPs stated points.
- middleclick 9y ago
  And it is the current party that was parading the dangers of Aadhar when they were in opposition. I like how you gave a completely one-sided view of the story. There have been documented cases of Aadhar misuse and personal information being leaked, but of course none of this bothers you.
thrawy67 9y ago
From the article: > However, unlike countries where similar schemes have been implemented, invasive bio-metric collection is being imposed as a condition for basic entitlements in India Remember: India has a unique set of challenges to overcome if it has to survive and prosper as a nation. It is surrounded by not-so-amenable neighbors and with cross-border infiltration at a constant strategy used against India ("death by thousand cuts").[1] And almost 20 million Bangladeshis have illegally crossed over from the eastern border [2] [3] and (unfortunately, reportedly getting Aadhar cards through whatever means, which defeats the purpose if it is true), for a country of a billion odd people at risk with such high uncertainty profile - the requirement to identify at least their own citizens vs the intruders/ offenders becomes a strategic and security action from the government perspective. I think we would be in wrong to compare the "right to privacy" in this scenario to that of the more developed nations that are pretty much geographically blessed/ isolated, population wise less dense, religiously homogenous and technologically advanced as such that they can track covertly vis-a-vis getting biometric details directly. In fact, the Supreme Court of India has observed that [4] "Supreme Court asks if right to privacy is absolute?" [1] https://www.pgurus.com/india-superpower-or-balkanized-war-zone/ https://www.pgurus.com/india-superpower-or-balkanized-war-zo... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration_to_India#Higher_judiciary.27s_concerns_over_Bangaladeshi_illegal_immigrants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration_to_India#H... [3] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Two-crore-Bangladeshi-immigrants-illegally-staying-in-India-Centre-informs-Rajya-Sabha/articleshow/55457903.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Two-crore-Banglades... [4] http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/privacy-not-absolute-says-supreme-court/article19308529.ece http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/privacy-not-absolute-s...
- kchoudhu 9y ago
  I keep hearing that 20 million number in every thread about Indian migration, and I can never find anything to back it up.
  - thrawy67 9y ago
    Please refer to the ToI article I cited in the reference. This figure is not pulled out of thin air, but neither it is 100% accurate. From ToI article: "The government, citing inputs available with it , told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that there were around 2 crore Bangladeshi immigrants staying illegally in India. If you were to believe the government estimates, you have to believe it. Even if it's off by 50%, you still have 10 million of them. P.S: In 2004 >> the estimate was 12 million, according to the article.
truemen 9y ago
Repeating the comment by @tryprasannan Most (all?) savings claims by govt are at best projected numbers. For those interested in an analysis of the savings claim and some of the other myths propagated by govt, see the 3 part analysis by Anand (https://twitter.com/iam_anandv https://twitter.com/iam_anandv) linked below Part 1 - https://www.medianama.com/2017/04/223-nandan-nilekani-aadhaar/ https://www.medianama.com/2017/04/223-nandan-nilekani-aadhaa... Part 2 - https://www.medianama.com/2017/06/223-aadhaar-lpg-scheme/ https://www.medianama.com/2017/06/223-aadhaar-lpg-scheme/
calvinbhai 9y ago
Does the author mean, biometric details have been leaked? I think he last 3 paragraphs, it looks like she's kind of using the numbers leak (aadhar numbers are not meant to be private, like SSN in the US) and the biometrics leak interchangeably. AFAIK, no biometric data has been leaked yet.
k_lander 9y ago
Why don't they create a system like UIDAI Payments where you can generate different aliases that all link to your actual aadhaar profile with permission based access and access history features. Seems like an issue that can be remedied with technology IMO.
- k_lander 9y ago
  To clarify, instead of submitting his actual aadhar details, the user submits a generated token that can be used by the information-requesting party to pull details of the user from the aadhaar database. This transaction is logged and the user gets to see the details of the party who requested it.

97 points by bhuthesh_r 9y ago

Do you think data of each person is saved over the Internet? In my opinion Government of India must create a high security for AAdhar data. But in India Aadhar data is available for everyone with a just simple click.

anilgulecha 9y ago

The pro: There have been significant fiscal benefits - fake personas have been completely eliminated in the welfare schemes that are aadhar linked, saving a lot for the taxpayers. The con: Government has all your biometrics, and can technically mine data from connected services to build a very detailed profile of you (hypothetically). IMO, both sides have valid points, and so it ends up being about which side the ruling government wants to fall towards.

tryprasannan 9y ago
Most (all?) savings claims by govt are at best projected numbers. For those interested in an analysis of the savings claim and some of the other myths propagated by govt, see the 3 part analysis by Anand (https://twitter.com/iam_anandv https://twitter.com/iam_anandv) linked below Part 1 - https://www.medianama.com/2017/04/223-nandan-nilekani-aadhaar/ https://www.medianama.com/2017/04/223-nandan-nilekani-aadhaa... Part 2 - http://www.medianama.com/2017/04/223-aadhaar-nandan-nilekani/ http://www.medianama.com/2017/04/223-aadhaar-nandan-nilekani... Part 3 - https://www.medianama.com/2017/06/223-aadhaar-lpg-scheme/ https://www.medianama.com/2017/06/223-aadhaar-lpg-scheme/
- truemen 9y ago
  Your post needs more visibility. I've taken the liberty to post it as a direct comment.
DarkKomunalec 9y ago
> hypothetically lol P.S.: I'm sure replies such as 'lol' are frowned upon, but I think in this case it conveys the idea perfectly and concisely.
fractalb 9y ago
> There have been significant fiscal benefits - fake personas have been completely eliminated in the welfare schemes that are aadhar linked, saving a lot for the taxpayers. Oh I didn't know that. I used to blame politicians for our sorry state.
- wtmt 9y ago
  Please check the links posted by tryprasannan above and also https://rethinkaadhaar.in/ https://rethinkaadhaar.in/ . All the savings numbers by the government are bogus claims. The poor continue to be affected by quantity and quality fraud when it comes to subsidized food entitlements. Aadhaar cannot solve that. It has added one more layer for corruption in many places instead.
jiraaya 9y ago
> There have been significant fiscal benefits - fake personas have been completely eliminated in the welfare schemes that are aadhar linked, saving a lot for the taxpayers. I'm deeply suspicious of any unqualified statements. It is extremely hard, if not impossible to prove your proposition.
- throwaway274783 9y ago
  Usha Ramanathan has noted many times that the so called 'savings' are due to two factors: global fall in oil prices, and more worryingly due to the denial of services from biometric issues. Someone here worried it can be use d for genocide, You know what ? It's already happening.
wtmt 9y ago
> The pro: There have been significant fiscal benefits - fake personas have been completely eliminated in the welfare schemes that are aadhar linked, saving a lot for the taxpayers. Sorry, you seem to be misinformed. If you look at Rethink Aadhaar [1] and its Twitter feed [2], you'd see how state governments were weeding out fake personas even without and before Aadhaar, and that Aadhaar by itself didn't make a big dent. All the claims of savings have reasons other than deduplication (including lies and excluding hundreds of thousands of genuine beneficiaries from welfare that they're legally entitled to). What Aadhaar has really done is excluded poor people, manual laborers whose biometrics cannot be verified, those who live far from where their entitlements are given (forcing them to visit multiple times instead of working to earn money or live their lives), those who're in areas of poor network connectivity (which is really huge in India). People have literally died, because Aadhaar and the governments' blatant disregard of the Supreme Court orders to keep it optional have excluded them and treated them as non-persons and non-citizens. Sorry, after reading up about all this for quite sometime, I feel so strongly about what's been happening that I'm going to be quite harsh here. Aadhaar is a genocide enabler that the government is using and turning a blind eye to. One cannot even take anybody to court for any failures or identity thefts on this matter, because that right is solely reserved for the UIDAI through the Aadhaar Act. And UIDAI would promptly respond or take action only if you're a famous cricketer (like Dhoni). The rest of them can keep trying the call center number 1947 and pray that the Gods listen and do something. [1]: https://rethinkaadhaar.in/ https://rethinkaadhaar.in/ [2]: https://twitter.com/no2uid https://twitter.com/no2uid

bdeorus 9y ago

The whole purpose of the project was to provide means of identification of people that didn't have any kind of document – passport, driving license, etc. Identification of people is crucial in regions where some people receive subsidies as ensures it reaches the right people. It's a shame this platform is being potentially used to violate citizen's privacy. Maybe a EU GDPR-esque regulation would balance the control on where private information is used back to the citizen.

wtmt 9y ago
> The whole purpose of the project was to provide means of identification of people that didn't have any kind of document – passport, driving license, etc. That was just the guise under which it was launched. Aadhaar has been a poorly thought out and poorly implemented solution that's still looking for problems. Responses to RTI (Right to Information) queries have shown that 99.7% of people who enrolled for Aadhaar did so using existing identification documents. Only 0.3% enrolled without identity documents using the "introducer" system. [1] [1]: http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/very-few-indians-didn-t-have-id-proof-before-aadhaar/story-0v4U95UH57i0O0snYE1EeN.html http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/very-few-indians-didn-t-...

acdjuiamadfn 9y ago

It took gas connection 6 months (or upto years) and now I get it in 3 fucking hours. Same for license and what not. Sure there are problems to be fixed but lets fix basic problems first

aangjie 9y ago
Bro, just got aadhaar fingerprint auth rejected two days in a row. Don't think i'll get it to work anytime soon. Local states' aadhaar auth rejection seems to be 30% rejection rate. (For first 3 months of 2017).
wtmt 9y ago
Those changes have little to do with Aadhaar. Efficiency in delivery could be achieved despite Aadhaar. If you look at the savings figures and all the analysis put in by many people, you'd understand that the government is publishing bogus figures. In the case of cooking gas (LPG), even the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) disproved the claims of huge savings.

rajadigopula 9y ago

Yet the irony is - The govt. will never dare to link it with voter registration. And no one questions, as everyone knows why!

jiraaya 9y ago
I hope they don't. Do you even realize what you are talking about! If they did that, it is easy to conceive a system that can determine whom you voted for (at a certain level of confidence). That kind of information can have potentially harmful consequences for many.
- rajadigopula 9y ago
  You don't need to link your vote to aadhaar. Vote can be anonymized, but polling booths can still check and identify voters using aadhaar and easily avoid duplicate votes & rigging.
  - NDT 9y ago
    ^ wholeheartedly agree.
  - srisa 9y ago
    If online verification is used, issues of no-connectivity/poor-connectivity/latency can cause problems. Polling units are sent to remote corners of the country. Loading the polling unit with aadhar database can be one approach. Very few know (relative to the number of personnel involved in the polling process), as to which polling unit will go to which polling station. Trying to load constituency specific database into polling unit will increase the surface area of the people who have to know which unit goes where. Loading the aadhar database of full constituency into polling units might not be technically feasible.
calvinbhai 9y ago
Here's why https://twitter.com/muglikar_?ref_src=twsrc%5Eappleosx%7Ctwcamp%5Esafari%7Ctwgr%5Esearch https://twitter.com/muglikar_?ref_src=twsrc%5Eappleosx%7Ctwc...

pushparajxa 9y ago

This is on steps to provide Universal Basic Income on the long run. That which requires ID & bank account for every person to deposit cash.

jitix 9y ago
This is actually one of the long term plans. Like another comment said it's very difficult to identify who's a citizen and who's not, so people are likely to give up some privacy for getting other benefits. In fact most people outside of the urban areas don't even give a fk about privacy and are merely looking forward to getting food for the next meal. So in India the people's priorities are very different than that in US/EU.
- wtmt 9y ago
  Firstly, Aadhaar is for residents of India, not just citizens. Anyone who has resided for more than half a year in the country can get it. Many places take the Aadhaar number or just a photocopy/print of the image as proof and provide other real identities. Even the passport office has started accepting Aadhaar, which makes it easier for resident, non-citizens to get an Indian passport and claim citizenship. This whole charade is going to hurt Indians of today and future generations for a long time.
  - jitix 9y ago
    It can be obtained by "legal" residents, although I don't think legal residents can get passports on the basis of their aadhar number. Aadhar fundamentally solves the problem of illegal residents and nefarious foreign agents getting valid credentials, but I do agree that there are a lot of corner cases where they have been able to obtain one. Another issue is that ration cards and subsidies accounts (including LPG subsidies in urban areas) can be duplicated - meaning that one person can (and do) open multiple accounts. Tying these to Aadhar will definitely reduce the abuse prevalent in the system.
    - wtmt 9y ago

dhaneshnm 9y ago

Indian left wing has been calling the current ruling party and the government "Fascist"[1] for a while now. So there is quite a bit of fear mongering regarding Adhar, as left suspects that govt. will eventually use this to crack down on the dissenting voices. But for those who don't share that opinion, this is part that needs attention, "The guidelines could have come earlier, and given large data leaks in the past may also be redundant. Nevertheless, it is reassuring to see practices for keeping information safe and the idea of positive informed consent being reinforced for government departments."ie, Though delayed, corrective measures are being taken. 1.http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/sitaram-yechury-bjp-government-fascist-authoritarian-modi-prakash-karat-cpm-3033385/ http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/sita...

dragonsh 9y ago
It's real and existential threat, given Indian govt is lousy when it comes to data protection. Indeed all aadhaar data is floating in many corporations especially the one supporting current govt. No laws on its misuse and govt cannot be taken to court. Indeed by blaming and divisive politics current govt is very capable to divert attention from real issue and blame left and calls all those opposing it enemies.
- ashwinm 9y ago
  You have no idea what you are talking about my biased friend.
  - wtmt 9y ago
    Please dispute points with explanations or counterpoints instead of condescending dismissals. It looks like you are the one who does not have enough information to counter GPs stated points.
middleclick 9y ago
And it is the current party that was parading the dangers of Aadhar when they were in opposition. I like how you gave a completely one-sided view of the story. There have been documented cases of Aadhar misuse and personal information being leaked, but of course none of this bothers you.

thrawy67 9y ago

From the article: > However, unlike countries where similar schemes have been implemented, invasive bio-metric collection is being imposed as a condition for basic entitlements in India Remember: India has a unique set of challenges to overcome if it has to survive and prosper as a nation. It is surrounded by not-so-amenable neighbors and with cross-border infiltration at a constant strategy used against India ("death by thousand cuts").[1] And almost 20 million Bangladeshis have illegally crossed over from the eastern border [2] [3] and (unfortunately, reportedly getting Aadhar cards through whatever means, which defeats the purpose if it is true), for a country of a billion odd people at risk with such high uncertainty profile - the requirement to identify at least their own citizens vs the intruders/ offenders becomes a strategic and security action from the government perspective. I think we would be in wrong to compare the "right to privacy" in this scenario to that of the more developed nations that are pretty much geographically blessed/ isolated, population wise less dense, religiously homogenous and technologically advanced as such that they can track covertly vis-a-vis getting biometric details directly. In fact, the Supreme Court of India has observed that [4] "Supreme Court asks if right to privacy is absolute?" [1] https://www.pgurus.com/india-superpower-or-balkanized-war-zone/ https://www.pgurus.com/india-superpower-or-balkanized-war-zo... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration_to_India#Higher_judiciary.27s_concerns_over_Bangaladeshi_illegal_immigrants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration_to_India#H... [3] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Two-crore-Bangladeshi-immigrants-illegally-staying-in-India-Centre-informs-Rajya-Sabha/articleshow/55457903.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Two-crore-Banglades... [4] http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/privacy-not-absolute-says-supreme-court/article19308529.ece http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/privacy-not-absolute-s...

kchoudhu 9y ago
I keep hearing that 20 million number in every thread about Indian migration, and I can never find anything to back it up.
- thrawy67 9y ago
  Please refer to the ToI article I cited in the reference. This figure is not pulled out of thin air, but neither it is 100% accurate. From ToI article: "The government, citing inputs available with it , told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that there were around 2 crore Bangladeshi immigrants staying illegally in India. If you were to believe the government estimates, you have to believe it. Even if it's off by 50%, you still have 10 million of them. P.S: In 2004 >> the estimate was 12 million, according to the article.

truemen 9y ago

Repeating the comment by @tryprasannan Most (all?) savings claims by govt are at best projected numbers. For those interested in an analysis of the savings claim and some of the other myths propagated by govt, see the 3 part analysis by Anand (https://twitter.com/iam_anandv https://twitter.com/iam_anandv) linked below Part 1 - https://www.medianama.com/2017/04/223-nandan-nilekani-aadhaar/ https://www.medianama.com/2017/04/223-nandan-nilekani-aadhaa... Part 2 - https://www.medianama.com/2017/06/223-aadhaar-lpg-scheme/ https://www.medianama.com/2017/06/223-aadhaar-lpg-scheme/

calvinbhai 9y ago

Does the author mean, biometric details have been leaked? I think he last 3 paragraphs, it looks like she's kind of using the numbers leak (aadhar numbers are not meant to be private, like SSN in the US) and the biometrics leak interchangeably. AFAIK, no biometric data has been leaked yet.

k_lander 9y ago

Why don't they create a system like UIDAI Payments where you can generate different aliases that all link to your actual aadhaar profile with permission based access and access history features. Seems like an issue that can be remedied with technology IMO.

k_lander 9y ago
To clarify, instead of submitting his actual aadhar details, the user submits a generated token that can be used by the information-requesting party to pull details of the user from the aadhaar database. This transaction is logged and the user gets to see the details of the party who requested it.