Good day Dear Brothers and Sisters, Its Sunday, December 9th 2012  If RTI Act empowers the citizens against the state, does Aadhaar empower the state against the citizens? | 05/12/2012 05:37 PM |   The report of the Group of Expe The report of the Group of Experts of the Planning Commission has submitted a set of recommendations for inclusion in the Privacy Act last fortnight. Is this a ploy by the government to use Aadhaar to counter the Right to Information Act? After all, Aadhaar reveals all personal data of an individual to the government, which may violate his or her fundamental right to privacy In the seven years of the existence of the RTI (Right to Information) Act, citizens have been empowered to access vital information from government offices. Has the government now become empowered to access private information of individuals through the Aadhaar scheme being doled out to residents by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)? Experts opine that an information revolution in the form of RTI now has a counter revolution in the avataar of UID. The attempt to use Aadhaar to provide government subsidies by a more transparent network is allegedly just a cover up. Nikhil Dey, leading RTI activist and founder member MKSS has stated in his article in the recently published book by YASHADA titled "Milestone 7: Journey of RTI Act" that, seven years down the line, the information revolution now has a counter revolution that is detrimental to citizen's privacy. He writes: "There are new debates about the ideologies of information and democracy, and there are now attempts to counter attack that have elements of a 'Counter Revolution'. There are new information laws in the making that give the state control over detailed information about every citizen. There are new draft privacy laws that claim to keep this information secure from the prying eyes of other citizens. There are secrecy clauses embedded into laws on data collection that once again seek to give the custodians of power exclusive control over information. And most threatening perhaps, are legal frameworks that legitimise the use of new technologies of information gathering to watch over every element of people's lives under the guise of 'good' governance, 'greater' security, and 'safer' democracies!" Dey further adds: "It is no longer a security agency gathering 'intelligence' about a select few, but a legal framework that allows those in power to watch all people all the time. As Gopal Gandhi, former governor of West Bengal so incisively cautioned, "We must ensure that tools like the UID must help the citizens watch every move of government; not allow the government watch every move of the citizens.' As they are today, the RTI and the UID stand on contrary sides of the information debate. If the RTI is a tool of the citizens to control the government and hold it accountable, the UID is a tool of the government to control the citizens." Venkatesh Nayak, programme co-ordinator, CHRI, who is researching on this subject, has appealed citizens to invoke RTI to find out details of actions planned by state governments on the basis of the finance ministry's advice to expand the Aadhaar network where pilots of the controversial UPA government's subsidy schemes will be rolled out linking UID to social development programmes. He states that, "there simply is no information about these issues in the public domain—only the rush and urgency of implementing the pilots. All this is hugely problematic because the government is not doing its mandated duty of complete proactive disclosure of facts and figures relating to the implementation of the UID as is required under Section 4 (1) of the RTI Act." Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to examine the legal sanctity behind the much hyped Aadhaar scheme, which is a direct pass for the controversial government scheme to directly transfer cash to eligible person's account. The PIL has been filed by KS Puttuswamy, a former judge of the Karnataka High Court. His contention was that not only does the Aadhaar scheme bypasses the Parliament where the National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010, is being still discussed but it also reveals all personal data of an individual to the government, thus violating his or her fundamental right to privacy. The objectives of the National Identification Authority of India Bill, prepared by the Standing Committee on Finance (2011-2012) chaired by Yashwant Sinha states: " It has been observed and assessed by the government that the issue of unique identification numbers may involve certain issues, such as (a) security and confidentiality of information, imposition of obligation of disclosure of information so collected in certain cases, (b) impersonation by certain individuals at the time of enrolment for issue of unique identification numbers, (c) unauthorised access to the Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR), (d) manipulation of biometric information, (e) investigation of certain acts constituting offence, and (f) unauthorised disclosure of the information collected for the purpose of issue of unique identification numbers, which should be addressed by law and attract penalties. To read about opinion on and coverage of Aadhaar at Moneylife, click here. "In view of the foregoing paragraph, the government has felt it necessary to make the said Authority as a statutory authority for carrying out the functions of issuing unique identification numbers to residents in India and to certain other persons in an effective manner. It is, therefore, proposed to enact the National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010, to provide for the establishment of the National Identification Authority of India (NIDAI) for the purpose of issuing identification numbers (which has been referred to as Aadhaar number) to individuals residing in India and to certain other classes of individuals and manner of authentication of such individuals to facilitate access which they are entitled and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto." Former chief justice of the Delhi High Court, Ajit Prakash Shah—in the report on Group of Experts on Privacy constituted by Planning Commission of India—made a set of recommendations to the government for inclusion in the Privacy Act. The report of 15 October 2012 states: "The ubiquitous use of personal identifiers, like UID, PAN, and passport, to complete transactions is taking place across India. As a result of this practice, centralised and decentralised databases that contain detailed records of individuals and their transactions are being converged by organisations and bodies on an ad hoc basis. The amount and granularity of information that can be converged through the use of these personal identifiers makes it possible for comprehensive profiles to be created of individuals and track individuals across databases via their personal identifier. In India, the use of personal identifiers across databases by third parties for tracing, convergence, or collation purposes is not addressed in the legislation that legally establishes the personal identifier (the NID Bill, Citizenship Act, the Passport Act, and the Indian Tax Act, etc) and is not addressed at the organisational or departmental level through policy. Thus, it is unclear if access is taking place in accordance with laws in force, and what standards are in place to prevent the unauthorized disclosure/access/use of personal identifiers. Therefore, it is not clear which organisations/bodies are legally collecting and storing personal identifiers, for what purposes, who is accessing data based on personal identifiers, how personal identifiers are being secured, how long personal identifiers are being retained, and if/how the personal identifiers are deleted. This creates a situation where governmental and private sector organisations can potentially access and use information directly or indirectly connected to, or generated by personal identifiers for multiple purposes without explicit authorization, and without the individual being aware or consenting to such access and use. The use of personal identifiers across databases should be in compliance with the National Privacy Principles." Even before the privacy of a citizen has been properly secured, the central government has gone ahead, putting up personal details of citizens in the technology space where not only others but the government itself can access personal data and misuse or abuse it. So while RTI Act empowers a citizen; the UID's Aadhaar number scheme empowers the government. To read more from Vinita Deshmukh, click here. (Vinita Deshmukh is the consulting editor of Moneylife, an RTI activist and convener of the Pune Metro Jagruti Abhiyaan. She is the recipient of prestigious awards like the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting which she won twice in 1998 and 2005 and the Chameli Devi Jain award for outstanding media person for her investigation series on Dow Chemicals. She co-authored the book "To The Last Bullet - The Inspiring Story of A Braveheart - Ashok Kamte" with Vinita Kamte and is the author of "The Mighty Fall".) http://www.moneylife.in/article/if-rti-act-empowers-the-citizens-against-the-state-does-aadhaar-empower-the-state-against-the-citizens/30053.html SAY NO TO AADHAR ------------------------------------------------------ Your comments and feedbacks always welcome at Cybugle@yahoo.com as well as at bruntno1@yahoo.com Working for God on earth does not pay much, ------------------------------------------------------- but His Retirement plan isout ofthis world. 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Aadhaar project is itself so powerful that it has attracted so many people toward it and this is the reason why the response from the people of the country is exceeding the expected value of its regulatory body, the UIDAI. This is a good scheme and will surely curb the cases of corruption in the entire system. We should participate in these types of government programs as they all are beneficial to us at the end.
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