The BJP on coming to power, extended use of Aadhaar to link with Pan, bank accounts, services and even examinations of students, death certificates, babies etc, with no privacy laws in place. Both public and private service providers bullied citizens to link Aadhaar or else! Government forms requiring linkage asked you to certify you were doing it voluntarily! Unless you complied, you were denied the service. The Tribune expose thrashing guaranteed security claims was termed by government as fake.
British Cambridge Analytica and its Indian arm OBI have admitted to harvesting personal data for both BJP and Congress for influencing something as important as elections! BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya admitted sharing user data with US based behavioural analytical Clever Trip. The Congress used an App with servers based in Singapore. We have a student expelled from a government school in Bhopal reportedly for opining teachers unpatriotic on Facebook! Serious discussions by experts bring out the obvious fact of how dangerous misuse of personal data can be.
With sophisticated electronic equipment, experts warn that today there is no if, but when any account will be hacked! The Supreme Court confirming right to privacy, is yet to decide on Aadhaar, and has indefinitely extended the deadline for need of linking with bank accounts, mobile phones and any other services except for those availing of government schemes! The good is enabling the government to discover fraud in duplicate Pan and mobile owner’s names; similarly identity theft in use of ration cards and other impersonations for pensions etc, which government claims were rampant. The bad was revealed by the CEO of UIDAI to the Supreme Court that no data is available of those denied/suffering due lack of Aadhaar authentication.
Around 6.83 lakh operators carried out the Aadhaar exercise and 49,000 of them had to be blacklisted by UIDAI. The CEO also admitted that there were glitches and faults in the system and did not claim perfection like the government, which seems in a mighty hurry to involve everyone and everything with Aadhaar! Unaware and illiterate persons/those finding difficulty digitally are left high and dry. There is frustration and pain inflicted due to the inadequate infrastructure and glitches in the system which were fatal for a patient not being admitted/treated in a hospital or some denied rations/services due lack of Aadhaar.
I have my Aadhaar and around ten governments certified identity cards, have since had cataract operations and developed unclear fingerprints, facial looks changed with age. My example shows the ugly part. I get biometric rejections and continue to get dire warnings from service providers. I have tried the alternate IVR procedure, which also did not work out and was advised to visit the Aadhaar centre again. After climbing up to the third floor (no Lift), waited patiently for my turn! Finally my biometrics was updated with linked mobile number. After a month I find phone number has not been linked because my finger prints are poor quality, which is why I went there in the first place? Goa Electronics office and Aadhaar centre at Patto Panjim advised I visit The Directorate of Planning, Statistics and evaluation at Pundalik Nagar, which in turn advised re-visit the same Aadhaar centre, and this time ask specifically only for linking phone. The in charge here said they only do biometrics and they have already included my phone number. I put him into contact with Directorate of Planning and thereafter no biometrics but eye recording with phone number was done.
After getting a confirming reply from [email protected], I find biometrics is certainly not reliable in my case and thousands of others whose fingerprints do not show/are unclear/do not match for no fault of their equipment (as they have pointed out) but neither any fault of ours? Service provider “B” linked my phone by OTP method! My Aadhaar is officially linked to Service provider “A” phone, but A will not use the OTP method and insists I link this phone with someone whose fingerprints show. This is insulting and harassment! I am astonished that government will just not see the big picture and admit hardship caused to citizens and dangers they may be getting us all and this nation into in future! BJP, Congress and JDU have reportedly used surveillance agencies to “harvest” data and use them for influencing voters for the respective parties in India. The said parties all deny it vociferously and keep pointing fingers at each other.
With fake news and aggressive marketing government policies and schemes which may never see the light of day, the citizen will never know what “Satya Mayve Jayathe” means! I am already having enough unnecessary trouble since suddenly I am not recognised as legitimate unless I have a re confirmed Aadhaar number linked, backed by biometrics confirmation which prove unreliable in cases like mine. If the computer has glitches or an OTP given comes out faulty (as has happened!), no off line backup is permitted. This or any future government may be enabled to conveniently control/ intimidate citizens by surveillance/blocking their Aadhaar. In the light of the above, and so many misuses/breaches of data already taken place and government trying to control media, can we trust this or future governments, with no stringent enforceable laws in place, owning/monitoring/misusing our private data and biometrics?
(The author is a retired naval officer, freelance writer resident in Porvorim)
