financialexpress.

com
http://www.financialexpress.com/article/fe-columnist/column-aadhaar-card-isnt-violating-your-privacy/139528/

Column: The Aadhaar vs privacy bogey

Invasion of privacy. That, in a nutshell, is the biggest objection to the governments Aadhaar card scheme, and
that is why, while allowing using of Aadhaar for PDS rations, the Supreme Court (SC) has said a larger bench will
look at the issues arising out of the privacy concerns it has to be mentioned here that, since the SC has also said
that Aadhaar is not going to be mandatory for availing of even PDS benefits, chances are states that have not
seeded their ration shop beneficiary data with Aadhaar so far are unlikely to do so now.
But this column is not really about the savings from making Aadhaar usage mandatory the graphic has some
details on this and those more interested can read ePDS, the Andhra way. This column is about the privacy issues
the Supreme Court will be looking at, and what many are agitating about.
Before we even get to whether Aadhaar is an invasion of privacy, a few points need to be made. For one, Aadhaar
is a database of biometrics, but it cannot be used to construct a profile of an individual indeed, if the government
is serious about making a case for Aadhaar, it needs to really stress this aspect of the database, maybe even
invite hackers to have a crack at the database, with a huge reward for those who manage to crack it.
So, if a ration shop user wants to authenticate if a customer is indeed who she says she is, a fingerprint on a Point
of Sale device will be SMSd to the Aadhaar database, but the database itself does not know what the information
is being sought for, or the details of the transaction. So, whether it is an LPG subsidy or a scholarship, Aadhaars
database has no knowledge of why it is being asked to authenticate a biometric. In that sense, it can never be
used to create a profile.
Also, it is important to keep in mind that each one of us using mobile phone apps is signing away our privacy to a
large extent, given how the apps want access to our contacts and, in many cases, also keep data on where were
at any particular point say no to this access, and you cant even load the app on your phone. Superimpose this
location data on top of any half-decent map of a city, and it means most apps know where we are eating, sleeping
or shopping, and for how long. So it does seem a bit farcical to complain about invasion of privacy, having legally
signed away your rights to do this.

But even those who have not done so are in danger of having a lot of their data out in the public domain, and
putting together a profile of sorts based on this is not very difficult. The Election Commission, for instance, has
electoral rolls available for every constituency. While this has only a certain amount of information, smart users
can use this as a climbing tool, using information from this database to glean information from others, and then
still others.
One such firm of data jocks, Fourth Lion in Bangalore, has run election campaigns for several people using the
power of data beginning with that from the election commission to construct a profile of voters, in order to
canvass them with as personalized a message as possible. The Election Commissions database is in PDF form,
but digitizing that isnt much of a challenge for good analytics professionals. Compiling voter IDs at the same
address, for instance, allows candidates to send one letter to the head of the household reminding him, for
instance, that he needed to vote along with other members of his family. Run the name against another database,
and it is possible to customize the language of the letter Hindi, Tamil etc giving the impression the candidate
knows his electorate very well, right down to the names of his wife and children. Run the database with, for
instance, one from the local electric utilities load shedding in an area, and the candidates letter could even talk of
the unfortunate 2-hour power outage the previous week! A general survey using PIN numbers in the Election
Commissions database similarly, would let you know if the candidate lived in an affluent neighbourhood, to help
customize the message. Fourth Lion, of course, is not the only company that does such work, the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) has an army of data jocks gleaning information about the electorate that BJP candidates can
use.
A chance visit to Fourth Lions office in Bangalore was instructive, and after a conversation was struck up about
how publicly available information could be used to construct a profile of an individual, this was done for me at my
request. All that Fourth Lion had to work with was my name and address in Delhi, and the results were given to me
in less than a day.
There were some obvious mistakes in the profile, but the results were impressive, and frightening at the same
time. So, it had my age (50, at that time) from the Election Commission website and my wifes (since shes shown
as my daughter, this is something the EC needs to look at!) as well as similar details for our neighbours, the
Bhallas and Chadhas. The cards, Fourth Lion told me, had an old format, suggesting I had been living at the
address since pre-2010 (OMG! this is like Big Brother watching, and it gets worse). Since there was no one else
in the family that was a major at that point, fortunately, there is no information on children at ceodelhi.gov.in.
My fathers name (in the EC list) helped construct some details about the fact that theres a family history of
journalism yes, they got to the website one of my sisters hosts of my late fathers articles.
There wasnt too much success with the status of my LPG connection and how many cylinders I used, though the
transparency sites of the PSU oil companies has details of how many cylinders every consumer uses by name
and address but since the names and addresses are there for each agency, it is possible to find out more, but it
could take some time.
What was truly frightening, of course, was how easily accessible the details of my property were. Go
to mcdpropertytax.in and enter the address (available at the Election Commission website) and you can get the
property ID number. Then go to this MCD link and enter the ID number and you have all the details of the property
in terms of the size, the category of colony it is (this helps when you want to see what the rateable value is since
the government classifies this by type of colony), the size of the plot, the built-up area, the year of construction and
even my mobile number.
My Linkedin account had more personal details, and Fourth Lion also constructed a little profile of my wifes
business and office address. My Facebook page would have revealed even more, though fortunately Im not into
posting pictures of social events or details of what I ate and where.
Short point is there is a lot of information in the public domain that were not even aware of. And yet, when theres
something like Aadhaar which is structured in such a way that no profiles can be created, we go after it. Hopefully,
when the Supreme Court is addressing the issue of privacy, the government will bring in lots of technical experts
to testify, and show, just what kind of information the database can provide and what it cannot. Meanwhile, as a

gesture of good faith, can all those opposed to Aadhaars invasion of privacy, at least remove all those apps that
give out all manner of personal details to app-makers?

Insights Daily Debates: Day 59

15 October 2015
Should Aadhar be Used in all Central and State Schemes?

livemint.com
http://www.livemint.com/Politics/XoXAlzO9SeGqB15LvBj0yN/SC-extends-voluntary-use-of-Aadhaar-for-govt-schemes.html

SC allows use of Aadhaar for more govt schemes

The Supreme Court will appoint a larger bench of at least nine judges to hear the privacy violation case
New Delhi: In a small but significant win for the government, the Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the use of
the use of Aadhaar number for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
(MGNREGS), Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, pensions and the Employees Provident Fund Scheme, in
addition to its current use in the public distribution system and the distribution of cooking gas and kerosene.
In an interim order on 11 August, the apex court had restricted the use of Aadhaar, the unique identity number, to
paying subsidies for the public distribution system and cooking gas and kerosene.
Subsequently, a number of regulatory authorities put up a joint defence seeking a modification of the interim order.
They included the Reserve Bank of India, Securities and Exchange Board of India and Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India, the governments of Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and
Rajasthan, and industry body Indian Banks Association along with the Unique Identification Authority of India
(UIDAI), the issuer of Aadhaar.
A five-judge constitutional bench comprising Chief Justice H.L Dattu and justices M.Y Eqbal, C. Nagappan, Arun
Mishra and Amitava Roy said in an order on Thursday, We are of the opinion that in para 3 of the interim order,
we can include schemes like MGNREGS, pensions by state and central government, Jan Dhan Yojana and
Employees Provident Fund Scheme along with PDS and LPG.
Para 3 of the 11 August interim order had allowed the use of Aadhaar for direct benefit transfer in foodgrain,
kerosene and cooking gas schemes.
The courts interim order threw an element of uncertainty around flagship government programmes such as
biometric attendance, Jan Dhan Yojana, digital certificates, pension payments and, more recently, the introduction
of payments banks, all of which critically depend on the Aadhaar number.
The apex court has also not allowed the use of Aadhaar for e-know-your-customer, which would have helped
banks, including payments banks, to enrol new customers and telecom operators for issuing SIM cards among
others.
As of now, 920 million Indian citizens have been allotted Aadhaar numbers. The interim stay was affecting
beneficiaries of the MGNREGS (91.7 million), pensioners (27.1 million) and recipients of scholarships (25.7
million), among others, according to data from UIDAI. Till now, 187 million bank accounts have been opened
under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana.
The apex court made the interim ruling in an ongoing hearing where several pleas related to Aadhaar were
clubbed together. Some relate to Aadhaar numbers being made mandatory to enable people to avail of certain
government benefits and services. Others deal with the number being a violation of privacy, especially in the
absence of any backing regulation or oversight, and yet others deal with possible misuse of the information.
The Supreme Court will appoint a larger bench of at least nine judges to hear the privacy violation case. The court
in 1954, in the case of M.P. Sharma vs Satish Chandra, ruled that the right to privacy was not a fundamental right
recognized by the Constitution. This case was decided by an eight-judge bench of the apex court, and only a
bench of equal or larger strength will be able to override that decision.

thehindu.com

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/choice-identity-and-privacy/article7531495.ece

Choice, identity and privacy

The Supreme Court has once again made it clear that the government cannot insist on the possession of an
Aadhaar card or number as a precondition for citizens to avail of specified benefits and services. The court has
been forced to reiterate its earlier order to this effect as more and more entities are trying to link their services
with Aadhaar. From the beginning it was clear that making Aadhaar a mandatory requirement would evoke
resentment and cause hardship to various sections. Some authorities caused alarm by indicating that people
would stand to lose benefits or be denied routine services unless they enrolled themselves. There were even
reports that some police stations asked for Aadhaar numbers before registering first information reports, and that
certain educational institutions tried to make it a prior requirement to apply for some courses. By making it clear
that no person should be in a position of disadvantage on account of not possessing an Aadhaar number, the
court has protected the right of the people to make their own choice in the matter. It, however, has not brushed
aside the relevance of the Unique Identification Number programme. It has allowed the authorities to link the
supply of goods under the Public Distribution System and cooking gas cylinders with Aadhaar numbers. For all its
exertions, the government must be relieved that to this extent its identification programme has obtained the
courts approval.
However, the question arising out of the scheme is not limited to whether it should be voluntary or mandatory. In
its pursuit of better management of and greater efficiency in the delivery of services, it is natural that the
government would want an identification mechanism to authenticate beneficiaries and consumers of its services
and welfare measures. Previously, such a mechanism would have posed a technological challenge. It has now
become a political and moral question. Can a government force citizens to enrol in an identification programme
that involves submitting personal information and biometric data? The question, which involves determining the
very validity of the scheme, has now been referred to a Constitution Bench. The reference will also cover the
issue of the citizens right to privacy. One of the key points in the legal challenge is that collecting biometric data
without enabling legal provisions and without clear norms to protect the data from misuse and theft may violate
constitutional rights. Recently, the Attorney General caused considerable disquiet by arguing in the same matter
that privacy is not a fundamental right. What the country needs is not only a safe means of digitising citizens
identity particulars but also a comprehensive law to protect their privacy and personal data from unauthorised
surveillance and misuse. Anything short of that will leave the citizen short-changed.
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