A warning on India's biometric identity model
As Indian government tries to promote its model of biometric ID model to other regions, a growing list of articles and reports documenting the risks of Aadhaar:
Privacy and Surveillance
The Different Ways in Which Aadhaar Infringes on Privacy
https://thewire.in/government/privacy-aadhaar-supreme-court-
CIS Report, Information Security Practices of Aadhaar (or lack thereof): A documentation of public availability of Aadhaar Numbers with sensitive personal financial information https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/information-security-practices-of-aadhaar-or-lack-thereof-a-documentation-of-public-availability-of-aadhaar-numbers-with-sensitive-personal-financial-information-1
Aadhaar’s Function Creep visible in digital ID for education: “APAAR” ID’s most disturbing feature is not its invasive data collection, but the clandestine manner of its implementationhttps://www.deccanherald.com/specials/digital-database-or-coercive-report-card-apaar-id-3469158
and ‘The Impossible Maze Of India’s New Student Identity Project—APAAR’ https://www.boomlive.in/decode/apaar-id-india-digital-education-aadhaar-crisis-29721
Security AND Data Breaches
‘Here are the major security breaches of Aadhaar and what was actually affected’
‘Indian state government leaks thousands of Aadhaar Numbers’ https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/31/aadhaar-data-leak/
‘UIDAI restricts Aadhaar portal access to 5,000 designated officials after alleged breach’
‘Cops In India Are Using Artificial Intelligence That Can Identify You In a Crowd’, reports HuffPost India
Errors, hassles, social exclusion of those already vulnerable
‘Without Aadhaar, without identity’. Vyom Anil, Jean Dreze write in The Indian Express: People who lose their Aadhaar number may not be able to retrieve it, and risk losing all social benefits https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/flaw-in-aadhaar-architecture-uidai-card-enrolment-7389133/
A detailed investigation into the working of an Aadhaar Seva Kendra in Ranchiillustrates the bureaucratic ordeals imposed on people trying to update or enrol in Aadhaar
“My face changes with each surgery. How many times will I update my Aadhaar?” Indian acid attack survivors take their fight against exclusionary digital ID norms to Supreme Court https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9VF3Qr4oAg
‘Starvation Deaths and Denial of Welfare Entitlements – Insights from Jharkhand’. An investigation by Siraj Dutta into more than 27 deaths caused by starvation in the five years after Aadhaar was made compulsory shows how it worsened chronic hunger when the poorest communities could not access digital technologies that had been mandatory https://www.scribd.com/document/836730293/SSRN-id3870242 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3870242
‘Tribal communities across Maharashtra face barriers to accessing education, health care, and government schemes because they could not register in Aadhaar’ https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/maharashtra/an-anonymous-life-without-an-aadhar-identity/article69939921.ece
A study by scholars at LibTech, how Aadhaar-centered digital systems requiring constant updates threaten people’s access to food under the public distribution system https://idronline.org/article/rights/infrastructures-of-exclusion-how-e-kyc-impacts-access-to-food/
“Savings” false claims of Aadhaar apparatus
Aadhaar’s $11bn Question: No basis for government statement on Aadhaar “savings”
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/aadhaars-11-bn-question-the-numbers-being-touted-by-govt-have-no-solid-basis/articleshow/62830705.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
More than 8 million drop in number of marginalised scholarship beneficiaries’ list linked to Aadhaar being forced, and tech glitches, delays https://news.careers360.com/89-lakh-drop-sc-st-obc-scholarship-students-aadhaar-card-link-pre-post-matric-pms-yasasvi-shreshta-nsp-ssp-portal-delays-nep
In a bid to build digital “golden data” records on every citizen, the most vulnerable were struck off social security registers, declared “dead” or absent https://thewire.in/rights/companies-gain-elders-lose-in-rajasthans-turn-to-cradle-to-grave-digital-governance
Opinion: Data is the new gold and Aadhaar is the tool to get it (Usha Ramanathan, 30 December 2016)
The mother of all disruptions (Jean Dreze, December 2016)
Resisting violations of the Supreme Court Orders on Aadhaar (Anupam Saraph, 12 December 2016)
Sharing Aadhaar data: HC notice to Centre, Reliance (Special Correspondent, The Hindu, 14 December 2016)
Aadhaar Regulations grant UIDAI unchecked power, and offer little convenience to users (Prashant Reddy Thikkavarapu, November 2016)
India's Aadhaar project: An assault on welfare, privacy, and democracy (Reetika Khera, Praavita, Aashish Gupta, November 2016)
Dark clouds over the PDS (Jean Dreze, September 2016)
On Aadhaar Success, it's all hype, that includes the World Bank (Reetika Khera, September 2016)
Can biometrics stop the theft of food rations? No, shows Gujarat (Anumeha Yadav, 17 December 2016)