HYDERABAD: It had a controversial birth. Forced as a “Money Bill”, which can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha (Rajya Sabha cannot make amendments to such bills), Aadhaar Bill, 2016 passed the Parliament amidst heated debates. Opposition members had raised concerns on the privacy of individuals following enactment of the law.
What is all this fuss about Aadhaar, anyway? It’s just a twelve digit number, you may say. But with that same number, the government (and probably, some foreign entities) can know about your personal details such as mobile number, date of birth, residential address, the amount of money in your savings accounts, the loans you have availed, PAN, the income tax you pay, stocks you own, provident fund details, the land you own, the vehicle you drive, your life insurance policies, and on and on and on.
Based on this data, the government (or a foreign organisation) can get a pretty detailed picture of who you are. It can profile you by the places you travel, the food you eat, the movies you watch, your political views, and through many other instances. Based on this, the state can practically map out your thoughts. Add Artificial Intelligence into it, and voila, the government can, with reasonable accuracy, “predict” what you do next! Sounds like Big Brother on steroids? In a few years, we may well find ourselves in such a scenario.
Are there any analogues of this kind anywhere in the world? Not by a long shot. In the US, all citizens and immigrants on a work visa have a Social Security Number (SSN), a nine-digit unique identity linked to your name, without biometric data. And SSN is not mandatory for availing many services, the way it is being done in India right now.
Though the recent Supreme Court judgment on Aadhaar in September has made it “not mandatory” for linking Aadhaar with services such as mobile numbers, bank accounts, school admissions and entrance exams, many operators and authorities are still insisting on Aadhaar.
A writ petition has been filed in the Supreme Court by renowned rights activist Dr Kalyani Menon Sen on the grave privacy implications of Aadhaar. She shares, “One of UIDAI’s certified contractors is US-based L-1 Identity Solutions, whose officers have served in the Intelligence agencies of US. An Indian citizen’s data can be transmitted to a foreign government, compromising India’s sovereignty, national security and severely undermining the privacy and autonomy of individuals.”
Recently, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman RS Sharma threw a challenge and tweeted his Aadhaar number, asking if it had made him vulnerable. A French security expert who goes by the Twitter handle @fs0c131y was able to get his address, date of birth and alternate phone number, before tweeting back to Sharma and cautioning him.
A paper ‘Biometrics and its impact in India’ released by Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), an arm of RBI, points out, “Thanks to Aadhaar, for the first time in the history of India, there is now a readily available single target for cyber criminals as well as India’s external enemies. In a few years, attacking UIDAI data can potentially cripple Indian businesses and administration in ways that were inconceivable a few years ago. The loss to the economy and citizens in case of such an attack is bound to be incalculable.”
The project was initially conceived for Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes, and then slowly morphed itself to become ‘mandatory’ in every aspect of our lives. Is Aadhaar doing a good job in DBT? As per reports across various publications, on the contrary, it has been the cause of various starvation-related deaths due to lack of ration provided to the poor (ostensibly due to lack of Aadhaar, failure in biometric authentication, and a host of other reasons).
As per news reports, bank officials are given targets to link 15 to 20 accounts with Aadhaar every day. Their incentives and promotions are linked to such targets.And after more than 90 percent Indians have enrolled for Aadhaar and have given it away to numerous service providers, UIDAI has launched its Aadhaar virtual ID scheme, which many experts say is just hogwash. The virtual ID enables you to generate a random 16-digit number mapped to your Aadhaar number which can be used with service providers.
Jean Dreze, a former member of UPA’s National Advisory Council, quoted, “The first lie was that Aadhaar is a voluntary facility. Today, we know that this was just doublespeak. Soon it will be virtually impossible to live in India without Aadhaar.” And Shyam Divan, a senior advocate practising in the Supreme Court, quoted Aadhaar project as an “electronic leash” to keep people under control.
The time may soon come when Aadhaar is asked for booking domestic and international flight tickets, rail tickets, booking movies online, at apparel stores, hypermarkets, etc., all in the name of providing “speedy services” and for improving “customer experience and convenience”.
Once upon a time, a few frogs were put in a pot of water hung over a flame. As the water got warmer by the minute, the frogs kept adjusting to the environment, until they were boiled alive. We are those frogs.