TREATING CITIZENS WORSE THAN PRISONERS, VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND CITIZENS’ RIGHT TO PRIVACY: GOPAL KRISHNA

TREATING CITIZENS WORSE THAN PRISONERS, VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND CITIZENS’ RIGHT TO PRIVACY: GOPAL KRISHNA

December 4, 2012

To
Hon’ble Justice K G Balakrishnan
Chairman,
National Human Rights Commission
Faridkot House
New Delhi
 
Date:December 4, 2012

Subject- Treating citizens worse than prisoners, violation of human rights and citizens’ right to privacy in view of NHRC’s views on biometric RFID and UID
 
Sir,

This is to draw your attention towards the fact that all the residents and citizens of India are being made subordinate to prisoner’s status by the ongoing collection of their “biometric information” that includes finger prints, iris scan for permanent storage in a Centralized Identities Data Register (CIDR) and National Population Register (NPR). This is being done ‘as per an approved strategy” by Planning Commission and Union Ministry of Home Affairs without any legal mandate.

I submit that “NHRC’s views on the NIAI Bill, 2010″ in the Human Rights Newsletter (Vol. 18 No.8, August 2011) reveals that UID/Aadhaar Number has dangerous ramifications is quite relevant in this regard. NHRC’s view was presented to the Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) on Finance. The PSC submitted its report to the Parliament on December 13, 2011 rejecting the UID Bill.

I submit that while such initiatives are underway, echoing NHRC’s view on “need for protection of information” and “the possibility of tampering with stored biometric information” in paragraph 5 (page no. 7 of the NHRC newsletter) and “disclosure of information in the interest of national security” mentioned in paragraph 9 (page no.8 of the newsletter), the Central Government’s Draft Discussion Paper on Privacy Bill admits, “There is no data protection statute in the country.” On UID Number, the Draft Paper on Privacy Bill stated, “Data privacy and the need to protect personal information is almost never a concern when data is stored in a decentralized manner. Data that is maintained in silos is largely useless outside that silo and consequently has a low likelihood of causing any damage. However, all this is likely to change with the implementation of the UID Project. One of the inevitable consequences of the UID Project will be that the UID Number will unify multiple databases. As more and more agencies of the government sign on to the UID Project, the UID Number will become the common thread that links all those databases together. Over time, private enterprise could also adopt the UID Number as an identifier for the purposes of the delivery of their services or even for enrolment as a customer.” The Draft Paper on Privacy Bill discloses, “Once this happens, the separation of data that currently exists between multiple databases will vanish.” This poses a threat to the identity of citizens and the idea of residents of the state as private persons will be forever abandoned.

In view of NHRC’s observation before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance that UID/Aadhaar Number will lead to discrimination due to  its distinction between residents and citizens in the name of “delivery of various benefits and services” and “weaker sections of society”, I wish to draw you attention towards what Late Roger Needham, a British computer scientist aptly said, “if you think IT is the solution to your problem, then you don’t understand IT, and you don’t understand your problem either.”

I submit that as per Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920, biometric measurement like fingerprints of prisoners are taken with the permission of Magistrate and these records of the prisoners are destroyed on acquittal. But in the case of UID/Aadhhar and NPR the same is going to stored forever without any legal mandate.

I submit that Biometrics “means the technologies that measure and analyse human body characteristics, such as ‘fingerprints’, ‘eye retinas and irises’, ‘voice patterns’, “facial patterns’, ‘hand measurements’ and ‘DNA’ for authentication purposes” as per Information Technology (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) Rules, 2011 under section 87 read with section 43A of Information Technology Act, 2000.

I submit that UID)/Aadhaar Number and NPR is treating all residents and citizens of India worse than prisoners. The Identification of Prisoners Act provides that “Every person who has been, (a) convicted of any offence punishable with rigorous imprisonment for a term of one year or upwards, or of any offence which would render him liable to enhanced punishment on a subsequent conviction, or (b) ordered to give security for his good behaviour under Section 118 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, shall, if so required, allow his measurements and photograph to be taken by a Police Officer in the prescribed manner.”

It further provides that “Any person who has been arrested in connection with an offence punishable with rigorous imprisonment for a term of one year or upwards shall, if so required by a police officer, allow his measurements to be taken in the prescribed manner.” As per Section 5 of the Act, “If a Magistrate is satisfied that, for the purposes of any investigation or proceeding under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, it is expedient to direct any person to allow his measurements or photograph to be taken, he may make an order to the effect, and in that case the person to whom the order relates shall be produced or shall attend at the time and place specified in the order and shall allow his measurements or photograph to be taken, as the case may be, by a police officer:”

I submit that as per Section 7 of Identification of Prisoners Act, “Where any person who, not having been previously convicted of an offence punishable with rigorous imprisonment for a term of one year or upwards, has had his measurements taken or has been photographed in accordance with the provisions of this Act is released without trial or discharged or acquitted by any court, all measurements and all photographs (both negatives and copies) so taken shall, unless the court or (in a case where such person is released without trial) the District Magistrate or Sub-divisional Officer for reasons to be recorded in writing otherwise directs, be destroyed or made over to him.” In the case of UID-Aadhaar/NPR the data will be stored forever.

I submit that NPR is also mentioned in Column 7 of the Aadaar/UID Enrolment Form. Census Commissioner who is ex-officio Registrar General of India (RGI) has awarded the NPR project to Department of Information Technology for 19 States and 2 Union Territories that covers a total population of 49 crores in urban and 13 crores in rural areas, 74 zones and 410 districts.

In fact, the treatment being given to citizens and residents of India is akin to treatment proposed for tigers who are going to be assigned a unique identification (UID) number to each tiger captured through camera traps by  National Tiger Conservation Authority.         

I submit that NHRC’s notice dated February 7, 2011 to Secretary, Union Ministry of External Affairs in the case of radio collars on Indian students in USA was also case of how NHRC objected to biometric identification of Indian students by clamping of radio collars on the ankles in the Tri-Valley University.

I submit that in a statement on the matter of Tri-Valley University scam released to media dated 12th February, S.M. Krishna, Union External Affairs Minister, Government of India said, “You will be happy to know that radio tagging has been removed from some students and other cases are being actively pursued.” It reveals that Government of India through its Embassy in Washington and Consulates in America has been working closely with the US Department of Homeland Security and the State Department to get “fair and humanitarian outcome” for the students who were tagged with radio collars.  The fact remains that some of other students remain tagged with Radio collars in US.

I submit that NHRC recieved a communication from the Foreign Secretary, Ms. Nirupama Rao on the issue saying, “We have also strongly protested the radio collars as unacceptable, which should be removed immediately.” Such biometric identification of Indian citizens is unacceptable indeed.

I submit that the fear of an emerging Orwellian situation where a Big Brother keeps a watch on everybody as George Orwell prophesied in his book 1984 that taught citizens that an all-knowing corrupt minority government is a terrifying situation.

I submit that it may be noted that Supreme Court of Republic of the Philippines July 23, 1998 rejected the National ID program initiated by President Fidel V. Ramos on December 12, 1996 through “Adoption of a National Computerized Identification Reference System” in its 60 page judgment on two important constitutional grounds, viz: one, it is a usurpation of the power of Congress to legislate, and two, it impermissibly intrudes on our citizenry’s protected zone of privacy.

I submit that in a significant development, the unanimous decision of 17 judges the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) about violation of the right to privacy and family life by biometric profile retention in criminal justice databanks, they found that the “blanket and indiscriminate nature” of the power of retention of the fingerprints, cellular samples, and DNA profiles of persons suspected but not convicted of offenses, failed to strike a fair balance between competing public and private interests and ruled that the United Kingdom had “overstepped any acceptable margin of appreciation” in this regard. This decision is relevant for UID, National Population Register (NPR), Human DNA Profiling and voice print through Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).   The decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decision about violation of the right to privacy and family life by DNA profile retention in criminal justice databanks merits attention. The case in ECHR was heard publicly on February 27, 2008, and the unanimous decision was delivered on December 4, 2008.

I wish to draw you attention towards a Statement of Concern on UID/Aadhaar by 17 eminent citizens which included demands like “The project be halted, a feasibility study be done covering all aspects of this issue, experts be tasked with studying its constitutionality, the law on privacy be urgently worked on (this will affect matters way beyond the UID project), a cost: benefit analysis be done and a public, informed debate be conducted before any such major change be brought in.”  This statement was issued by 17 eminent citizens like Justice V R Krishna Iyer, Prof. Upendra Baxi and Justice A P Shah on September 28, 2010 but till date these concerns and questions remain unanswered. 

In such a backdrop, I submit twelve questions that reveal why civil liberties and human rights movements are against UID related projects:

1.   Why do we need Unique Identification (UID)-Aadhaar Number as a 16th identity proof which in fact is an identifier and not an identity proof? Hasn’t linking of cash transfer with UID made it mandatory contrary to its continued claim that it is voluntary?

In the beginning, it was said that the UID would be voluntary. Now, it is creeping into becoming mandatory, with the threat that those who don’t have a UID cannot access services of many kinds, including rations and bank accounts. How does Nilekani see the implications of this creep for civil liberties and the rights of the people?

2. Why present and future Indian citizens should be allowed profiled based on biometric data? Are citizens worse than prisoners? The indiscriminate collection of biometrics of prisoners is not allowed as per Identification of Prisoners Act.

These UID linked initiatives of India’s e-government are akin to installing a microchip in the human body and electronic surveillance system of Saudi Arabia’s e-government to track the movement of Saudi women by their male guardians. It must be remembered that even Mahatma Gandhi opposed a law similar to UID as a Black Act in South Africa from 1906 to 1914 saying that “finger prints were required by law only from criminals.” UID related schemes too are based on biometric data like finger prints and iris scan.

3. Why have countries like UK, Australia, France, the Philippines and Europe has rejected UID like projects?

These countries have rejected identity projects that closely resemble the UID project because of its implications of civil liberty, the prohibitive cost, the untested technology and because it will make the people subservient to the state. What is the reason for thinking that Indian citizens can bear these risks and costs?

4.  How can UIDAI and UID project be deemed legitimate if it has been disapproved as violation of the prerogative of the Parliament by Parliamentary Committee on Finance

The Committee denounced the UID/Aadhaar project as ‘unethical and violative of Parliament’s prerogatives’ and as akin to an ordinance when the Parliament is in session.’ The government has not come up with a revised law, and there is in fact no law that, today, governs the project. Isn’t the protection of the citizen by law important?

5. Who will be held accountable for violation of citizen’s privacy law and data protection?

The UID project poses a threat to the privacy rights of citizens, and Nilekani has acknowledged that many times over. Yet, the project is steaming ahead without any law on privacy in place, and is believed to be breaching many privacy principles. How is Nilekani addressing this in his project as project leader?

6. If violation of confidentiality promised in the Section 15 of Census Act is done with impunity, how can census like UID and NPR exercise be trusted?

 7. What is the guarantee that whosoever controls Centralized Database of Indians will not become autocrat like Hosni Mubarak who handed over citizens’ database to US Government?

8. Isn’t the entire UID related exercise meant to provide market for biometric and surveillance technology companies and World Bank’s partners like International Business Machines (IBM), Gemalto, Intel, Safran Group, Microsoft, and Pfizer, France and South Korea?

There is an extraordinary dependence on corporations, many of them companies with close links with foreign intelligence agencies. How are the implications of this factor being dealt with?

9. Isn’t linking of UID with voter id, land titles, National Intelligence Grid, National Population Register (NPR), National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) etc an assault to rights of citizens?

The ubiquity that the UIDAI is trying to get for the UID — where it will be linked with the National Population Register, and service such set ups as the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS), the NCTC, the NATGRID– where are the protections for the citizen from an invasive state?

10. Who will guarantee that the centralized database of UID, NPR will not be used for holocaust, genocide, communal and ethnic riots, targeting of minorities and political dissidents? 

11. Among many questions that have emerged, one is: Has Nilekani, in rank of the Cabinet Minister taken the oath on Constitution of India to abide by its provisions?

12. Why is technology treated as if it has no politics, or no implications for civil liberties, when it is known that it most certainly does?, has asked Dr Usha Ramanathan, a noted jurist whose views are recorded in the report of the Parliamentary Committee  on Finance. 

In its report to the Parliament, the Parliamentary Committee on Finance has taken on board studies done in the UK on the identity scheme that was begun and later withdrawn in May 2010 when the proponents of ID project were defeated in the elections. The Committee took note of the problems like “(a) huge cost involved and possible cost overruns; (b) too complex; (c) untested, unreliable and unsafe technology; (d) possibility of risk to the safety and security of citizens; and (e) requirement of high standard security measures, which would result in escalating the estimated operational costs” in undertaking such projects.

The Parliamentary Committee has noted that the Central Government has “admitted that (a) no committee has been constituted to study the financial implications of the UID scheme; and (b) comparative costs of the aadhaar number and various existing ID documents are also not available.”

I submit that the structural basis is being laid out for future authoritarianism through despotic projects at the behest of the ungovernable and unregulated foreign biometric and surveillance technology companies. The collection of biometric data supports the ideology of biological determinism with its implicit and explicit faith in the biometric technologies. There are hitherto unacknowledged dangers of trusting such technological advances for determining social policies.

I submit that the unfolding automatic identification regime is being facilitated by Shri Nilekani, Dr C Chandramouli, the Census Commissioner, Union Home Ministry and others in the face of corporate media unquestionably promoting ungovernable and unregulated identification and surveillance technology companies. Dr Chandramouli is guilty of violating the confidentiality promised under the Census Act, 1948 by using illegitimate subordinate legislation under Citizenship Act, 1955 for biometric data based NPR linked to UID given the fact that 60 crore population is being under UID and the rest under NPR. This subordinate legislation has been questioned by the Parliamentary Committee on Finance.

I submit that providing for a dignified treatment of the citizens of India, Section 15 of the Census Act establishes that “Records of census not open to inspection nor admissible in evidence”. It reads: No person shall have a right to inspect any book, register or record made by a census-officer in the discharge of his duty as such, or any schedule delivered under section 10 and notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, no entry in any such book, register, record or schedule shall be admissible as evidence in any civil proceeding whatsoever or in any criminal proceeding other than a prosecution under this Act or any other law for any act or omission which constitutes an offence under this Act.” Demolishing this dignity of the citizens, the Union Home Ministry is dehumanizing citizens by according them a status inferior to that of prisoners.

I submit that ahead of the 2014 elections, the rewriting and engineering of the electoral ecosystem with the unconstitutional and illegal use of biometric technology is akin to re-plumbing the electoral landscape. This is all set to link cash transfer, UID, Election ID and Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) which is not as innocent and as politically neutral as it has been made out to be. It is noteworthy that all EVMs have a UID Number as well.

I earnestly seek your intervention to safeguard civil liberties and human rights of present and future generations from such the illegitimate advances of a bullying State as has been done in The Philippines, UK, France and Australia. It has been established that UID-Aadhaar does not have any basis contrary to its name, Aadhaar which means foundation or base; it is legally Niraadhaar (baseless). If winter session of Parliament fails to stop UID related projects despite having a considered parliamentary report against it, it will be remembered as a historic and monumental failure.

I submit that creation of Centralized Identities Data Register (CIDR) of UID will create a bullying Database and Surveillance State through its ‘black box’.

I submit that Mahatma Gandhi opposed a law similar to UID as a Black Act in South Africa from 1906 to 1914 saying,”.. I read a volume on finger impressions by Mr. Henry, a police officer, from which I gathered that finger prints were required by law only from criminals.” In August 1906 the Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance became law in the Transvaal. Any Indian who did not register by a certain date would no longer be allowed to stay in the Transvaal. This law stated that every Indian man, woman or child older than 8 years must register with a government official called the registrar of Asiatics. This registrar was to also take the fingerprints of the people he registered and issue them with registration certificates, which they had to show to any policeman who asked to see them. Notably, UID scheme too is based on biometric data like finger prints and iris scan.

It is germane to note that in the US, there is a UID like project called radio frequency identification (RFID) project which is being opposed by the citizen groups there. The technology, RFID, is rapidly moving into the real world through a wide variety of applications: Washington state driver’s licenses, U.S. passports, clothing, payment cards, car keys and more.  Their objective is to create a future world where RFID is everywhere and figure out problems. RFID has been used primarily to track goods in supply chains, and the RFID Ecosystem works as a kind of human warehouse. The system can show when people leave the office, when they return, how often they take breaks, where they go and who’s meeting with whom. The latest RFID tags contain a 96-bit code meant to uniquely identify an object or person. The RFID is an invisible tag. US. Department of Homeland Security required states to use an RFID chip that is readable from a distance to be compatible with its REAL ID initiative. It has failed to take off because of opposition of US States and citizens.

I wish to draw your attention towards a news item dated Oct 25, 2011 about “Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Systems for homes” (http://www.yentha.com/news/view/1/14123) costing around Rs 15 per unit. This has reference also to the attached MoU signed between Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and Government of Kerala on May 28, 2010. Similar agreement have been signed by other States as well.

I wish to draw your attention towards the protest against RFID during the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) between the 16th to 18 November 2005 by the founder of the free software movement, Shri Richard Stallman who protested the use of RFID security cards.

I submit that with the objective of unified Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) technology for National Highways in India, had set up a Shri Nandan Manohar Nilekani headed Committee to examine all technologies available for ETC and recommend the most suitable one for implementation throughout India. The 28 page report of the Committee refers to RFID, saying, “RFID tags are used for the purpose of identification and tracking using radio waves.” After examining these and several other technologies, Shri Nilekani headed Committee recommended passive RFID tags although there is only one microchip manufacturer for this kind of application stating that “It is extremely simple to use and administer, requiring no actions on the part of the user (the sticker itself can be stuck on the vehicle by the auto vendor or the manufacturer).

It is noteworthy that the US Military’s huge supplies and equipment around the world was tracked using IBM punch cards during World War II, now radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are used to do the same. RFID tags work like “wireless bar codes” which perform the task of recording, tracking, and managing.

I submit that State Bank of Travancore (SBT) has the entered into agreement an with the Kudumbashree Mission to facilitate the extension of its financial services to villages in Kerala. The SBT is to issue smart cards with RFID facility to the customers in villages to act as yet another Identity Card.

I submit that RFID technology helps keep track of supplies and equipment to the battlefield at the right time and place and to secure supplies in the military operations of US Department of Defense’s (DoD) and its troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US Navy’s combat casualty care unit uses RFID technology to track combat casualties in Iraq through RFID chips sewn into the wristbands of naval personnel. The US Department of Defense announced the establishment of a Radio Frequency Identification Policy (RFID) on October 23, 2003.

I submit that similar RFID stickers were detected in the office of Union Finance Minister, which was widely reported in the media. It was reported (June 21, 2011, Indian Express) that on September 7, 2010, the then Union Finance Minister wrote to Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh asking him to order a ‘secret inquiry’ into what he called a “serious breach of security” in his office: the presence of “planted adhesives” in 16 key locations as a possible surveillance act. These locations included the office of the Finance Minister himself, the office of his then Advisor, the office of his Private Secretary and two conference rooms used by the Finance Minister, including the main conference hall on the ground floor of the heavily guarded North Block. This got revealed through counter-surveillance operation of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) that the adhesives were “planted” at critical places in the Finance Ministry which on closer examination showed grooves on the surface which indicate some “plantable adhesive substances” could have been pasted. The proposed RFID tags appear to be similar to the “plantable adhesive substances” as stickers being proposed for vehicles as part of implementation of ETC technology. Similar incident was reported with regard to the office of the Defence Minister as well.

I wish to bring a book SpyChips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID by Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre to your notice. The authors forewarn us of how we are being made to “imagine a world of no privacy. Where your every purchase is monitored and recorded in a database and your every belonging is numbered. Where someone many states away or perhaps in another country has a record of everything you have ever bought. What’s more, they can be tracked and monitored remotely”. The 270 page book has been published by Thomas Nelson Inc in 2005. It has been contended that RFID will impact our civilization in a deeper way than printing press, industrial revolution, light bulb, Internet and personal computers. The introduction of RFID marks the beginning of a world where everything and every place gets imbedded with RFID or spying micro chips.

I submit that RFID and UID projects are going to do almost exactly the same thing which the predecessors of Adolf Hitler did, else how is it that Germany always had the lists of Jewish names even prior to the arrival of the Nazis? The Nazis got these lists with the help of IBM which was in the ‘census’ business that included racial census that entailed not only count the Jews but also identifying them. At the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, there is an exhibit of an IBM Hollerith D-11 card sorting machine that was responsible for organising the census of 1933 that first identified the Jews.

I submit that the history of RFID can be traced to 1945 when Léon Theremin invented an espionage tool as a covert listening device which retransmitted radio waves with audio information. In the recent times, the largest deployment of active RFID has been done by the US Department of Defense. In 2009 researchers at Bristol University successfully glued RFID micro-transponders to live ants in order to study their behavior. RFID tags for animals represent one of the oldest uses of RFID technology.

I submit that RFID tags, part of biometric data is world-readable. It poses a risk to both personal location, privacy, national and military security of the country. India’s corporate media seems quite indulgent towards the emergence of a technology-based social control regime due to “Paid News” phenomena, it is up to you and the legislature to bring them under control by revealing the true nature of biometric data based RFID and related identification exercises like UID and NPR

I submit that while UIDAI has been informing the residents, citizens, concerned government departments and the media that the UID Number scheme is voluntary, the ‘Legal Framework For Mandatory Electronic Delivery of Services’ of Union Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, refers to “UIDAI – UID based authentication for services” as an enabler, thus making it compulsory. UIDAI has been functioning without legislative approval since January 2009. Besides the annoucement of UID/Aadhaar based cash transfer implies that the right to have rights is being made dependent on biometric data based UID/Aadhaar.

I submit that Cabinet Committee on Unique Identification Authority of India related issues (CCUIDAI) is acting in contmept of citizens fundamental rights and Parliament. As per Cabinet Secretariat’s website (http://cabsec.nic.in/showpdf.php?type=council_cabinet_committees),the “Functions” of Cabinet Committee on Unique Identification Authority of India related issues include “All issues relating to the Unique Identification Authority of India including its organization, plans, policies, programmes, schemes, funding and methodology to be adopted for achieving the objectives of that Authority.”

I submit that the Report of the Shri Nilekani headed Technology Advisory Group (TAGUP) for Unique Projects dated January 31, 2011 presented to Union Ministry of Finance recommends setting up of National Information Utilities (NIU). It proposes NIUs as “private companies with a public purpose:profit-making, but not profit maximizing.” This appears to be an exercise in linguistic corruption.  This TAGUP report refers to UIDAI Strategy Overview document published by UIDAI and mentions that “The recent acceptance of Aadhaar (UID Number) for satisfying proof of identity and address for all telecom connections by Department of Telecommunications will also ensure greater telecom inclusion”. It alo refers to Biometric data standards and how “the UIDAI published standards for the collection and storage of biometric data in the Report on Biometrics Design Standards for UID  Applications, under the chairmanship of Dr. Gairolab.” It must be noted that the uncertainties about biometrics in relation to a large a population as 1.2 billion remain. According to this very Report of the Biometrics Committee of the UIDAI, so far, the maximum number covered has been 50 million people. In fact, even this Committee of UIDAI looked unsure of it in the final analysis, stating: “First, retaining efficacy while scaling the database size from fifty million to a billion has not been adequately analysed. Second, fingerprint quality, the most important variable for determining de-duplication accuracy, has not been studied in depth in the Indian context.”

I submit that UIDAI is seeking demographic and biometric information like Name, Date of birth, Place of birth, Gender, Father’s name, Father’s UID number (optional for adult residents), Mother’s name, Mother’s UID number (optional for adult residents), Address (Permanent and Present), Expiry date, Photograph and Finger prints, NPR Survey Slip No. Now it also includes Iris scan etc. “The Authority will offer a strong form of online authentication, where agencies can compare demographic and biometric information of the resident with the record stored in the central database.”

I submit that the UID/Aadhhar must be looked at along with other initiatives which will end up undertaking surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting of Indian residents and citizens on basis of caste, religion, political opinion and regional bias. UIDAI and related agencies are attempting to convert a resident into a number, Indian population into a market and then citizens into subjects.

In view of the above, these issues directly linked to Right to Life merit your attention in the supreme interest of human rights of present and future generation of citizens. This appears to necessitate an order from NHRC recommending stoppage of further implementation of the biometric data based initiatives by the Central and State Governments and seeking destruction of already collected biometric data of Indian residents and citizens.

Thanking You

Yours Sincerely

(Gopal Krishna)
Member, Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties (CFCL)
New Delhi
Phone: +91-11-2651781, Fax: +91-11-26517814
Mb: 9818089660, E-mail: krishna1715@gmail.com

WORLD BANK PAPER REVEALS THE ULTERIOR MOTIVE BEHIND UID RELATED SCHEMES October 20, 2012

WORLD BANK PAPER REVEALS THE ULTERIOR MOTIVE BEHIND UID RELATED SCHEMES.

October 20, 2012

Gopal Krishna is an environmental and civil rights activist and can be contacted at krishna1715@gmail.com.

Gopal Krishna

Truth behind launch of 21st crore UID-Aadhaar number

Deceptive ‘voluntariness’ of UID-Aadhaar taking citizens, States & parties for a ride by ‘vote buying’ through conditional e-payments

World Bank paper reveals the ulterior motive behind UID related schemes 

Biometric data based 12 digit Unique Identification (UID)-Aadhaar Number linked welfare schemes is being bulldozed with 2014 elections in mind with the ulterior motive of altering voting behavior of the citizens by creating a ‘universal identity infrastructure’ linked to ‘unified payment infrastructure’. 

Ahead of next parliamentary elections, with the launch of 21st crore UID-Aadhaar Number and Aadhaar Enabled Service Delivery (AESD) on October 20, 2012 contemptuously ignores Parliament, Parliamentary Committee, National Advisory Council and eminent citizens and the lessons from the belated report from Planning Commission’s Group of Experts on Privacy dated October 16, 2012. What is evident is that there is an open war declared on sensitive personal information like biometric data which includes finger prints, iris scans, voice prints, DNA samples etc. The fact is a centralized electronic database of citizens and privacy, both are conceptually contradictory.

The launch exercise of October 20, 2012 stands exposed because it is officially admitting that UID-Aadhaar is mandatory contrary to what was claimed at its launch in Maharashtra on September 29, 2010. The creeping of voluntariness into compulsion through threat of discontinuance of services has been roundly castigated by Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha headed Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance.

A revealing Policy Research Working Paper titled ‘Conditional Cash Transfers, Political Participation & Voting Behavior’ brought out by World Bank in October 2012 “provides empirical evidence to support the notion that political participation and political views are responsive to targeted transfers.” It notes that in Colombia, “During the 2010 presidential election voters covered by FA (large scale conditional cash transfer) not only voted more often, but also expressed a stronger preference (around 2 percentage points) for the official party that implemented and expanded the program… Another possible explanation is that FA (large scale conditional ash transfer) was strategically targeted and motivated by clientelism and vote buying.” 

On its website Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) continues to claim that UID-Aadhhar is ‘voluntary’ and not ‘mandatory’. The million dollar question which Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Nandan Monohar Nilekani need to answer is: how can Aadhaar be deemed ‘voluntary’ if service delivery is being made dependent on it. This is a grave breach of public trust. This is a deliberate exercise in deception.  The proposed ‘electronic transfers of benefits and entitlements’ through ‘Aadhaar-linked bank accounts of the beneficiaries’ is crafted to make it mandatory. The claim “Each Aadhaar number will be unique to an individual and will remain valid for life. Aadhaar number will help you provide access to services like banking, mobile phone connections and other Govt and Non-Govt services in due course” is fraught with creating a platform for convergence of government and corporate sector as is aimed by the ‘Transformational Government’ project of World Bank’s eTransform Initiative launched in partnership with Governments of South Korea and France and six transnational corporations like Gemalto, IBM, Intel, L-1 Identity Solutions (now part of Safran Group), Microsoft and Pfizer. 

This scheme is unfolding despite the fact that Parliament has not passed the National Identification Authority of India Bill (NIAI), 2010 proposed by the Indian National Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. It is noteworthy that Sinha headed Parliamentary Committee in its report to the Parliament has rejected UID and biometric data collection terming it as an illegal and an unethical project.

Corroborating citizens’ concerns, the Parliamentary Committee has noted that the government has “admitted that (a) no committee has been constituted to study the financial implications of the UID scheme; and (b) comparative costs of the aadhaar number and various existing ID documents are also not available.” The Committee expressed its anxiety that, the way the project had been run, “the scheme may end up being dependent on private agencies, despite contractual agreement made by the UIDAI with several private vendors.”

The parliamentary rejection of this scheme came in the aftermath of the Statement of Concern issued in the matter of world’s biggest data management project, Unique Identification (UID) /Aadhaar Number scheme and related proposals like National Intelligence Grid by 17 eminent citizens led by Justice V R Krishna Iyer.  The NIAI Bill, 2010 which was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on December 3, 2010 after the constitution of the UIDAI and appointment of Nilekani as its Chairman in the rank and status of a Cabinet Minister without oath of secrecy. The Bill sought to provide statutory status to the UIDAI which has been functioning without backing of law since January 2009. At present UIDAI is functioning without any legislative mandate. 

One day ahead of the launch of UID in Nandurbar District of Maharashtra on September 29, 2010, the statement of eminent citizens had asked for the project to be put on hold till a feasibility study was done, a cost: benefit analysis undertaken, a law of privacy put in place and the various concerns of surveillance, tracking, profiling, tagging and convergence of data be addressed. None of this has happened till today. The Parliamentary Committee endorsed these concerns and recognised that the project cannot carry on till this is set right. Many countries UK, China, USA, Australia and the Philippines have abandoned such identity schemes.

Nilekani, as a member or chairperson of multiple committees of several ministries, has been trying to push for the adoption of the UID, and for the re-engineering of current systems to fit the does not meet the requirements of the UID. There have been attempts to withdraw services such as LPG and other essential commodities if a person has not enrolled for a UID. The state governments and citizens have been kept in dark about the harmful ramifications of the world’s biggest data management project and how it linked with hitherto undisclosed other proposed legislations and initiatives. The UID number and related proposals pose a threat to both civil liberties as well as our natural resources like land as is evident from Land Titling Bill and Nilekani’s book that aims to create a common land market to reduce poverty.   

Nilekani’s promotion of Hernando de Sotto’s book ‘The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else‘ through his own book Imagining India arguing that national ID system would be a big step for land markets to facilitate right to property and undoing of abolition of right to property in 1978 in order to bring down poverty! Nilekani and the UPA government should be asked as to explain the inexplicability of such assumptions. 

Notably, such UIDs have been abandoned in the US, Australia and UK. The reasons have predominantly been: costs and privacy. In the UK, the Home Secretary explained that they were abandoning the project because it would otherwise be `intrusive bullying’ by the state, and that the government intended to be the `servant’ of the people, and not their `master’. The Supreme Court of Philippines struck down a biometric based national ID system as 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.

Not surprisingly, the Parliamentary Committee observes, “The clearance of the Ministry of Law & Justice for issuing aadhaar numbers, pending passing the Bill by Parliament, on the ground that powers of the Executive are co-extensive with the legislative power of the Government and that the Government is not debarred from exercising its Executive power in the areas which are not regulated by the legislation does not satisfy the Committee. The Committee are constrained to point out that in the instant case, since the law making is underway with the bill being pending, any executive action is as unethical and violative of Parliament‟s prerogatives.” The committee also observed that a National Data Protection Law is “a pre-requisite for any law that deals with large scale collection of information from individuals and its linkages across separate databases. It would be difficult to deal with the issues like access and misuse of personal information, surveillance, profiling, linking and matching of data bases and securing confidentiality of information etc.“

In a significant development following rigorous deliberations, an Indian development support organization founded in 1960, Indo-Global Social Service Society (IGSSS) disassociated itself from UID Number project which was being undertaken under Mission Convergence in Delhi.  Withdrawal of IGSSS that works in 21 states of the country merits the attention of all the states and civil society organisations especially those who are unwittingly involved in the UID Number enrollment process. In its withdrawal letter IGSSS said, “we will not be able to continue to do UID enrolment…” It added, it is taking step because ‘it’s hosted under the rubric of UNDP’s “Innovation Support for Social Protection: Institutionalizing Conditional Cash Transfers” [Award ID: 00049804, Project: 00061073; Confer: Output 1, Target 1.2 (a) & Output 3 (a), (b)]. In fact we had no 

clue of this until recently when we searched the web and got this information.’

It is clear that both Mission Convergence and UIDAI have been hiding these crucial facts with ulterior motives. The letter reads, “IGSSS like many other leading civil society groups and individuals are opposed to conditional cash transfers and the UID will be used to dictate it.”

The Parliamentary Standing Committee considered the NIAI Bill, 2010 presented its report to the Parliament on December 13, 2011. The reported rejects biometric data based identification of Indians. The report is a severe indictment of the hasty and `directionless’ project which has been “conceptualised with no clarity of purpose”. Even the functional basis of the Unique Identification Authority of India UIDAI is unclear and yet the project has been rolled out. The Standing Committee found the biometric technology `uncertain’ and ‘untested’. As early as December 2009, the Biometric Data Committee had found that the error rate using fingerprints was inordinately high. In a recent interview to the press, the Director General and Mission Director of the UIDAI had admitted that fingerprints are likely not to work for authentication. The error rate could end up excluding up to 15% of the population. It has also come to light that even iris scan keeps changing and is unreliable. Yet, the UIDAI has gone on with the exercise. Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties (CFCL) had appeared before the Parliamentary Committee to give its testimony on the UID BIll. 

“I would have liked to make an additional point about the perspective Adhaar reflects vis-a-vis governance of our country and the conduct of our society. The only inference one can reasonably draw is that the votaries of this idea expect the Indian state to perpetually or for a long time remain in the ‘mai-baap’ role, personally taking care of each of its needy children. Why else would we want to spend so much money on a device only meant to enable the ‘mai-baap’ to correctly identify its children?” said Deep Joshi, member, National Advisory Council (NAC) in a message. Other NAC members like Aruna Roy has also been vociferously opposed to centralization of governance through schemes like UID. Clearly, the views of these members too have been ignored.   

Besides influencing the voter preference, once the Planning Commission’s Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) of 600 million citizens is ready by 2014 and the related National Population Register (NPR) of the remaining 600 citizens is ready it will emerge as a potential threat to minority communities of all sorts by some regime which finds them unsuitable for their political projects.  

So far the entire political class has remained insensitive to the decision of the European Court of Human Rights about violation of the right to privacy and citizens’ rights. The case was heard publicly on February 27, 2008, and the unanimous decision of 17 judges was delivered on December 4, 2008. The court found that the “blanket and indiscriminate nature” of the power of retention of the fingerprints, cellular samples, and DNA profiles of persons suspected but not convicted of offenses, failed to strike a fair balance between competing public and private interests and ruled that the United Kingdom had “overstepped any acceptable margin of appreciation” in this regard. The decision is nonappealable.

Unmindful of this, in India, National databank of biometric data is unfolding which is proposed to be linked to electoral database amidst the political myopia of political parties in the face of the onslaught of the foreign biometric and surveillance technology companies. The only saving grace has been Parliamentary Standing Committee that has taken on board studies done in the UK on the identity scheme that was begun and later withdrawn in May 2010, where the problems were identified to include “(a) huge cost involved and possible cost overruns; (b) too complex;(c) untested, unreliable and  unsafe technology; (d) possibility of risk to the safety and security of  citizens; and (e) requirement of high standard security measures, which would result in escalating the estimated operational costs.”

It may be recalled that S.Y. Quraishi, the previous Chief Election Commissioner had sent a dangerous proposal to Union Ministry of Home Affairs asking it “to merge the Election ID cards with UID”. Such an exercise would mean rewriting and engineering the electoral ecosystem with the unconstitutional and illegal use of biometric technology in a context where electoral finance has become source of corruption and black money in the country. This would lead to linking of UID, Election ID and Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) which is not as innocent and as politically neutral as it has been made out to be. It is noteworthy that all EVMs have a UID as well. In the meanwhile, it is reliably learnt that voter registration in Manipur is happening using biometric data. This makes a mockery of the recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on UID which notes that “The collection of biometric information and its linkage with personal information of individuals without amendment to the Citizenship Act, 1955 as well as the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, appears to be beyond the scope of subordinate legislation, which needs to be examined in detail by Parliament”.

Opposition parties at the centre and in the States appear to be feigning ignorance about these attempts at re-plumbing the electoral ecosystem and a complicit section of civil society seems guilty of practicing ‘the economics of innocent fraud’. 

The results of the October 2012 World Bank paper find that “voters respond to targeted transfers and that these transfers can foster support for incumbents”. The UID-Aadhaar and unified payment infrastructure proposed is an act in designing political mechanisms to capture pre-existing schemes for political patronage in spite of the absence of ‘legislative mechanisms’. It is apparent that non-UPA parties have been caught unawares into implementing the program which is designed to their political disadvantage.   

“UID is not yours” presents various perspectives of those who have examined While there are millions who think that Aadhar will benefit the citizens of India in many ways and bring down corruption to large extent, there are many who have severely criticized Aadhar project.

Mathew Thomas, a former defense scientist and a civic activist is one such critic of Aadhar UID project. He has recently published a monograph called “UID is not yours”, in which he has termed the entire UID project as Sinister Ploy by the Government and has equated it to being an Ultimate Identification Theft.

UID, through their articles. The monograph also includes a few RTI queries and 
UIDAI’s replies, to present first hand information about the project.  It also includes material collated from the Internet to call attention to the need to halt the scheme and investigate it further.

In very short, “UID is not yours” is trying to convey that UID is a extremely risky, unsecure and dangerous proposition as the control of the database of UID ultimately lies with the Government, meaning some politician, bureaucrat or company official who manages the database. And if there are any “leakages” at that level, it very well cause damages in catastrophic proportions for entire country and its citizens.

Here is the entire monograph – It surely has some interesting information. If you are yet to apply for UID, make sure you read this, you may probably cancel your plans to get a UID for yourself!

Aadhar UID: Is it a Sinister Ploy & Ultimate ID Theft?

Posted by Arun Prabhudesai on Jan 14, 2013 |

Posted at : 

http://trak.in/aadhar/aadhar-uid-sinister-ploy-id-theft/

HAPPY EID MILAAD-UN-NABI

Allah Tallah Hum Sab Ko Sedhi Raah Pr Chalny Ke Taufeeq Ata Farmay
Ameen
HAPPY EID MILAAD-UN-NABI

Please think through before supporting UID/ Aadhaar, so you do not regret your decision.

Please think through before supporting UID/ Aadhaar, 

so you do not regret your decision.

Kindly Endorse

Citizens against UID / Aadhaar.

Endorse this citizen statement on UID 

by commenting here or sending a mail 
to Mohammed Chand Shaikh 

at chandshaikhmail@gmail.com

We, representatives of people’ movements, mass organizations, institutions and concerned individuals including all the undersigned strongly oppose the potential tracking and profiling based techno-governance tools such as the Unique Identification number (UID) by the Government of India and the manner in which legitimate democratic processes have been undermined through this.

The proposed UID project seems to be perched on an anti-people perspective and violates a number of basic rights guaranteed under Part III of the Constitution of India including Articles 14, 15, 17, 19 and 21 viz., the Rights to equality, dignity, privacy, expression and the right not to be discriminated against, The project seems to be aimed at profiling people by pooling in biometric and retinal data pertaining to an individual and could be potentially discriminatory in a country where caste identity is the most predominant socio-political marker. Further, it is a travesty on the dignity and privacy of individuals. At another level, given the fact that more than one third of our population live below the substantial level called “poverty line” and without literacy & numeracy, a large section of our population would find itself unable to handle this number in a meaningful way and thus face the danger of virtually stripped of their citizenship and thereby the very legitimacy of their existence on the land of this country.

This project which has been launched at a budgeted cost of INR 1900 Crores for the year 2010-2011 in a country where the Government has officially declared that 400 million of its citizens are living below poverty line is , thus an insult to the dignity of the Peoples of India. The project headed by a person of the rank of the Union Cabinet Minister, whose appointment was not transparent and a staff overhead of more than 100 is also working under the most non-transparent processes and we fear that the decisions are made and influenced by vested private and corporate interests who have had a record of anti-people and anti-democratic activities. There is no wide public discussion on the feasibility or desirability of the project.

It is in this context that we have serious objections to the way the decadal census process is being used to pitch the UID process and no discussion on this has happened in any of the democratic forums including the Parliament, which also transgresses n the right to dignity and privacy of individuals and their choice to opt out of the UID process. If the UID continues to be tagged with the Census process – we would also consider boycotting the same. It is a matter of great concern that the powers that be have deliberately kept silent on the inter linkage between the UID and current mode of census

In this situation it is not clear which decisions are being made by the private sector or by the elected representatives. There are proposals within this project that will result in changes to the PDS, food subsidy, MGNREGS etc are being put forward by the Planning commission and UIDAI. They suggest that instead of food grains, cash subsidies must be given to beneficiaries which can be encashed at public or private sector shops.

In the past the changes in policy were achieved through influence and lobbying, but now entrepreneurs have been appointed as non-politicians with cabinet rank. While the project was hailed as a “gamechanger” and a welfare measure, the public at large have expressed growing concerns about the UID and its implications for ordinary citizens. Many questions are being raised about the nature, status and aims of the scheme. Countries such as the UK, Australia and the USA have found similar measures unworkable due to the serious probability of abuse and the strong opposition of the public. There is a huge expenditure proposed for the UID. The UID would affect every citizen. We as groups and individuals feel the need to engage the larger public in an open discussion about the UID and its proposed scope, implementation, benefits and risks. We are also mobilising public opinion on issues and concerns about the UID.

We the undersigned demand that : 

• the UID project be scrapped with immediate effect.
• all the transactions undertaken by the UIDAI project be scrutinized by an accountable public body from the democratic governance structure in a transparent manner taking into consideration the concerns of the all the peoples before venturing into the implementation stage.
• the financial and technological implications and the costs incurred so far, including details of contracts entered into with respect to the UID project be made transparent.
• the Census and UID project be forthwith de-linked.
• 
  

We against UDI/Aadhaar .

Rabia Memorial Trust.

Mohammed Chand Shaikh ( Chairman )

Ghatkopar (West) Mumbai.

Endorsed by :

Moving Republic, Bangalore

Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore

Citizens Action Forum, Bangalore

PUCL, Karnataka.

Slum Janandolana

Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore

Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF)

PEACE, New Delhi

Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, Badvani(MP)

South Indian Cell for Human Rights Education & Monitoring (SICHREM), bangalore

Posco Prathirodh Sangram Samithi, Orissa

Adivasi Mulvasi Astitva Raksha Manch, Jharkhand

Himalaya Niti Abhiyan, Himachal Pradesh

National Hawkers Federation

Kerala Swathanthra Matsya Thozhilali Federation (KSMTF)

Nagpur Municipal Corporation Employees Union

Nadi Ghati Morcha, Chhattisgarh

Peoples’ Solidarity Concerns- Bangalore

People’s Watch

ANHAD

Sudhanthra ( A Rehabilitation Centre for Victims of Domestic Violence and Torture’).

Janvikas, Orissa

Other Media Communications, Bangalore

Visual search, Bangalore

Theeradesa MahilaVedi, Kerala

National Coastal Women’s Movement, Chennai

Alliance of women’s right in Disaster(ANWORD), Chennai

Kerala Tourism watch

Dalit Women’s Forum, Andhra Pradesh

Centre for Education and Documentation, Mumbai

IPTA (Bihar)

EKTA (commitee for communal amity), Mumbai

EQATIONS, Bangalore

Openspace, Bangalore

Rajadhari Basti Uriyan Parishad, Orissa

Chhattisgarh Kisan Mazdoor Vikas Kendra

Asangatit karmakar Shramik Union, UP

Munsikhan Mawat vikas Community Foundation, Alwar, Rajasthan

Pondichery Slum Dwellers Federation

Himpravesh, solar, Himachal Pradesh

Chhattisgarh Action Reserch Team (CART), Raipur

ViBGYOR Film Collective, Kerala

Adivasi, Sarumgi Vikas Sangh, Gujarat

Samata, Orissa

Society for Culture & Development, Kerala

Youth Initiative for Leadership Training, Kerala

Patabhedam Magazine, Calicut, Kerala

Global Alternate Information Applications(GAIA), Thrissur, Kerala

Kabani – The Other Direction, Kerala

Pedestrian Pictures, Bangalore

Just Peace Foundation, Manipur

Concern, IISc, Bangalore

New Socialist Alternative, Karnataka

Infochange India

Privacy Network in Asia

Countercurrents.org

Deccan Development Society

Jananeethi, Thrissur

ANEEK monthly journal, West Bengal

Urban Research Centre, Bangalore.

MEDIA ACTION GROUP.