Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Five reasons why Aadhaar shouldn't be applied universally -Mitali Saran

Five reasons why Aadhaar shouldn't be applied universally -Mitali Saran

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Apr 9, 2017   modified Modified on Apr 9, 2017
-Business Standard

Not only is your privacy stripped stark naked, the system itself is illegal and vulnerable

Indians have serious red tape PTSD. We live with chronic anxiety about the documents that get us the entitlements and paid services we need — food, cooking gas, SIM cards, sale deeds, passports and so on. We’re so tyrannised by bureaucracy that when we hear of an official document that might simplify life, we fall upon it with cries of joy. We laminate and file it, make 294 copies of it, and scan the sucker just to be sure. Thus it was with Aadhaar, the biometrics-based unique identification number. It was going to be purely voluntary, and could be used in lieu of other identification. Imagine that — one piece of paper to cut through the mess! A billion of us ran out and got it.

It’s got to be the biggest bait-and-switch in history.  

I failed to educate myself about how the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was building and handling the database to which I was voluntarily offering my most intimate, personal, irreplaceable biometric information — fingerprints and iris scans. Nandan Nilekani was spearheading it — knows his stuff, modern man, benevolent tech, security, privacy, right? My bad.
Critics of Aadhaar have been trying for years to alert us to its real and serious problems, mostly in vain. Today, as we discover that our voluntary, secure, private information is no longer voluntary, or secure, or private, their voices ring loud. Here’s my five-point layperson’s recap of the most disturbing problems put forward by legal scholars, economists, and technology and security experts. We all need to consider them, and read up on them, before blindly furnishing our Aadhaar numbers.

Imperfect authentication: Some people’s fingers are too cracked or dirty for prints to properly register. People lose eyes. Children’s biometrics change. Machines don’t always work. Authentication failure means that millions of people could be turned away from their entitled food rations, despite having a valid Aadhaar number.

It’s illegal: The Supreme Court has repeatedly stated that Aadhaar is voluntary, and barring further orders, nobody can be denied anything for lack of it. Despite that, the government is trying to hugely widen the range of services for which Aadhaar is mandatory. The Aadhaar Act, forced through the Lok Sabha as a money Bill last year, makes enrolment compulsory for those wanting subsidies. This year, the BJP used the Finance Bill to smuggle in many more Aadhaar requirements, including for filing income tax, and giving children, whose biometrics keep changing, their midday meals, to which they are entitled not just by law, but by basic human decency. The cherry on top: The government can also revoke or deactivate your number without notice.

Please click here to read more.

Business Standard, 7 April, 2017, http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/aadhaar-one-id-to-bind-them-all-117040700785_1.html?code=aVdUbGpva3pUMkgwS0VGZUx6bExZSkpLM0dWT2xHalNINGUwNHFxWWszTT0%


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close