Identity Project's List: Moneylife

"A study argues that there is too much uncertainty in biometrics to predict how well the technology will perform in the real world, much less support investment in this technology

Three scholars who have provided the academic foundation for the biometrics industry, particularly in the Western world, say that the level of uncertainty in biometrics is so great that tests prove nothing.

The academicians have, in a paper titled "Fundamental issues in biometric performance testing: A modern statistical and philosophical framework for uncertainty assessment", argued that the level of uncertainty in biometrics is so great that they cannot be used to predict how well the technology will perform in the real world and therefore this cannot support a valid argument for investment in biometrics. "

"For the common man, a KYC (know your customer) process is needed for every small transaction. For corporates, these norms are more stringent, in issues concerning security and taxation. But the government ignores all KYC requirements for large and international corporates, and seems to be happy to do business with ghosts hiding behind tax havens and opaque corporate structures

One of the most basic elements of any relationship, transactional or long-term, personal or business, is to know more about the other parties in the relationship. It goes without saying—you and I would like to know who they are, what they are, and most importantly—where they are from and what is their permanent address... and so on.

Frankly, you and I would mostly not buy a simple small item for our domestic use unless we knew more about the seller, and the product or service that is being dispensed. Even a cup of tea from a roadside stall, where there is a danger of urea being mixed in it instead of milk, invites due diligence."

"According to a report published by the RBI, technically this is possible, but the acceptance of biometrics in payment authentication has not been proved anywhere else yet

Card present transactions at point of sales (POS) and automated teller machines (ATMs) constitute the major proportion of card-based transactions in India. However, the present operating systems using magnetic strip cards (MSDs) and personal identification numbers (PIN) may be replaced in the not too distant future, due to skimming and counterfeit frauds. "

"According to a report published by the RBI, technically this is possible, but the acceptance of biometrics in payment authentication has not been proved anywhere else yet

Card present transactions at point of sales (POS) and automated teller machines (ATMs) constitute the major proportion of card-based transactions in India. However, the present operating systems using magnetic strip cards (MSDs) and personal identification numbers (PIN) may be replaced in the not too distant future, due to skimming and counterfeit frauds.

According to a report of the "Working Group on Securing Card Present Transactions" of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), there is a need to put in place a series of measures to strengthen the payments infrastructure and ecosystem in the country. It says, inferences drawn from case studies clearly indicate the need to have a much stronger authentication mechanism and reiterate the need for a second factor (2FA) for card present transactions. (Skimming is the illegal copying of information from the magnetic strip of a credit or debit card.)
"

"While a majority of countries have shifted to more secured card payment systems like EMV plus PIN, the US, China and India are still not ready to ditch the magnetic strip card system. However, due to newer payment systems, the future of the card payment system looks bleak

Credit cards and debit cards, or automated teller machine (ATM) cards, commonly referred to as plastic money, are undergoing tremendous changes across the globe. In order to improve security and reduce frauds in plastic cards and card payment transactions, authorities, researchers and innovators are searching for newer ways. This has resulted in many countries shifting to the more secure Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) chip cards with personal identification numbers (PIN). "

"In what clearly amounts to duplication, two government agencies are planning to create separate citizen databases including biometrics of the state's entire population in Haryana without any coordination. The food and supplies department of the Haryana government and the census
department, Registrar General of India (RGI), have decided to undertake huge data collection work separately for their own databanks. The databases being prepared by the two government agencies will be almost identical with both gathering similar information. Besides, they will use the state machinery for data collection exercise. "

"Activists are urging the PM to immediately stop the UID or Aadhaar number scheme due to invasion and misuse of privacy, saying that it is against the Constitution. They want the funds diverted towards more productive projects

Already under heavy criticism, the UID (Unique Identification Number), or Aadhaar as it is called now, has more flak coming its way. Human rights activists, led by advocate and activist Kamayani Bali Mahabal, have started petitioning Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh against Aadhaar, since they believe it is a gross violation of individual privacy. Their petition states that collection of highly sensitive personal data of the population without following Parliamentary procedure is unacceptable and outright violation of Article (21) of the Constitution. (No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law)."

"The indigenous alternative in the payments space to Mastercard and Visa, RuPay, took a big stride with Reserve Bank of India-promoted National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launching the card in partnership with Bank of India. Bank of India becomes the fourth partner bank for NPCI. Over the past two months, it has tied up with three regional rural and co-operative banks and distributed 10,000 cards, NPCI's managing director and chief executive AP Hota said.

The card, named "Dhan Aadhar", has the 12-digit Aadhar number given by the Unique Identification Authority of India, besides the conventional 19-digit number. It also carries a photograph of the accountholder, which helps it serve as an ID-card like a passport, Bank of India chairman and managing director Alok Misra said. The Padgha village was chosen for the launch as all the residents in the local gram panchayat have already got Aadhar numbers, he said. Hota said his organisation has already integrated with the servers of the UIDAI which would enable it real time access to cross-verify details like biometrics and photograph. "

"UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani said plans are on track to issue Aadhaar numbers to 600 million people in three to three-and-half years

Bangalore: One million Indian residents are expected to enrol for unique identity (Aadhaar) number every day from this October, reports PTI quoting chairman of Unique Identity and Development Authority of India (UIDAI) Nandan M Nilekani.

"As UIDAI scales up the systems both at the back-end by adding more technologies and at the front by adding more enrolment stations, it is confident of achieving this goal," he said.
"

"'Aadhaar' is a government scheme and has the potential to be the biggest scandal ever that would dwarf all other such swindles that have become public knowledge thus far

Some Bengaluru-based prominent citizens has issued legal notices to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and the Planning Commission questioning their illegal activities in implementing the UID project, or Aadhaar, without any legal authority to do so. "

"Many Indians have raised data security and privacy issues over the ambitious UID number project. Now, even the US is concerned that the number could be issued to terrorists through fake ID

While many citizens and privacy advocates in India have raised serious questions about the unique identification (UID) number, also known as the Aadhaar project, the United States is worried about security aspects of the project. "

"Maharashtra government is offering incentive to its employees for enrolling more residents for the UID number scheme. The incentive part could be dangerously misused by the state government employees by promising fake benefits to get more people enrolled under the controversial Aadhaar project.

The Maharashtra government has decided to give incentives to its employees for hassling…sorry, enrolling common residents for the unique identification number (UIDN) or Aadhaar number. There are already several stories about the fake promises given by employees, like the Aadhaar number would help in getting foodgrains under the public distribution scheme (PDS), several other benefits given under the below poverty level (BPL) initiatives and so on. The additional attraction of incentive would pose serious risks for people who are unaware of the dangers of the Aadhaar number.
"

"According to test results of UIDAI’s biometrics-based Aadhaar project, there could be up to 15,000 false positives for every Indian resident. Moreover, this figure is just for identification and not for verification

The Indian government and its de-facto tagging institution, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), have not only ignored privacy concerns but also ignored sample test results of its pilot project. Both the government and UIDAI have been in such a hurry that they have neglected the basic principle of pilot testing and size of sample. For over 1.2 billion UID numbers, they have used data from just 20,000 people, in pairs, as the sample and have on the basis of the results gone ahead with the UID number through the 'Aadhaar' project. "

"The number of people affected by bad credit scores has been rather thin as more than half the data at the country’s largest bank is rejected by CIBIL’s database because it is incomplete

It is 10 years since the Credit Information Bureau (India) Ltd (CIBIL) was incorporated. Yet, fewer than 10% of those who attend Moneylife Foundation’s financial literacy workshops are usually aware of the role of credit bureaus or the implications of a negative credit history. In theory, all your financial actions—late payments of credit card dues or equated monthly instalments (EMIs)—blend into a numerical credit score that reflects your creditworthiness.
"

"The UID project which is being rolled out with much fanfare by the government has innumerable pitfalls. Here are a few of them

Aadhaar with its biometrics and the ability to facilitate convergence of information-bona fide or otherwise-has the potential to compromise privacy and put people in trouble.

When such privacy concerns are raised, the oft-repeated rhetoric among the educated middle class is: "I am a law-abiding citizen and I do not have much to hide and fear. So, why should I be concerned with my personal data, including biometrics, being stored under the Aadhaar project, especially if it can make my life convenient?"

Well, if you are one of those who thought likewise, here are a few plausible ways in which you could be in trouble, thanks to Aadhaar and its indiscriminate use in the not too distant a future. "

"Whether the super-worm was created in the US, Israel or China, we will never know. Nevertheless, India is still collaborating with companies from these countries without any background checks. Take for example, L-1 Identity Solutions, UIDAI’s partner for the Aadhaar project

Last week, the New York Times published an article that claimed that Stuxnet, an Internet worm, which infects the Windows operating system (OS), was a joint project of the US and Israel and its testing was done on nuclear centrifuges identical to those used by Iran at its Natanz nuke facility.

Even since Stuxnet made its appearance, it is alleged that the worm is mainly responsible for hampering Iran's nuke project. Some even claimed that the same worm was responsible for the launch failure of India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rockets. However, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has denied this claim.
"

"Powerful commercial interests have been lobbying for the enactment of a Data Protection Act, but there is no such equivalent power, either financial or temporal, to rally behind reinforcing personal privacy protection

India's Constitution has inbuilt safeguards to protect personal privacy. Unfortunately, it is expressed in general terms, to wit, Article 21 (in the 'fundamental rights' section) assures citizens of the right to life and liberty, but this has been specifically reaffirmed by the Supreme Court to include the right to personal privacy.

Should this be a source of comfort, then, for law-abiding Indians? Sadly, the answer is no. While there are a number of laws, rules and judgments that describe the protection, and exceptions to that protection, afforded by the body corpus of the law, the devil is in the details-that is, the men and women detailed to give life to the law. "

"Students at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore raised questions on the huge cost of the newly-launched unique identification project, the security of the system and what was being done to prevent its possible misuse, but they got no clear answer

In the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) that I graduated from way back in 1983, dialogue and debate were the essence of true talent. Those who were revered most by the janta (as we used to call the crowd) were not just the toppers and gold medalists of the class-of course they had their special place too-but those who excelled in debating. In all the talks and public functions that we attended at IIT, the speaker would be booed if he shied away from the debate or the questions-and-answers session. It was okay if he gave the wrong answers, but it was important that he stuck on to face the music. "

"While UIDAI and its chairman had said that the biometrics-based UID number would not be mandatory for Indian residents, many financial institutions and service providers are planning to turn it into the final word for identification

The biometrics-based unique identification number (UIDN) programme was launched with an open declaration that it would not be mandatory. However, the union government (the chief financier for the project) and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) are busy creating backdoor compulsions for UIDN through financial institutions and service providers, to ensure that people enrol or be left out of the system.

Only yesterday, labour secretary PC Chaturvedi told media persons that once the UIDN project is fully launched, the number would also help track provident fund (PF) accounts of individuals. Even the railways, as if not to miss the train, is planning to provide targeted concession to low-income group people through the UID number. According to reports, the railways wants to use the UID number to identify people living below the poverty line (BPL) and sell cheaper tickets to them. Although at present there is no provision for financial status, it could soon find a place in the UIDAI database, if one is to go by what the railways in planning.

Two months ago, CB Bhave, chief of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), had said that the market regulator was working on a new concept of operations based on the UID number. Although, for SEBI this is not the first time that it has tried to enforce an identification for investors. The market regulator discontinued its much-touted 'market participant identification number' (MAPIN) scheme in June-July 2005, after a six-member committee that was appointed to re-examine the use, structure and feasibility of the MAPIN database, recommended an end to biometric identification for investors. (Read 'Now, SEBI jumps on the UID bandwagon')
"