India's Biometric Identity System Tracks Nearly a Billion People
And in darkness bind them
In his presentation about the Aadhaar system, Chief Architect Varma explains it is interoperable, scalable and modular: “Built truly as an 'online identity platform' enabling many Government and private applications”. And, it must be said, based on a cursory view of the specifications provided by Varma the Aadhaar system appears to be a truly impressive piece of technology. As an instrument of governance, however, it is terrifying.
The applications the Indian government is adding to the system include linking cell phone data and banking transactions to Aadhaar numbers. In 2015 a pilot project was announced enabling people to buy SIM cards with their Aadhaar number.
When all of this data is collected in a central database, a system could emerge that knows just about everything. Based on smartphone data it knows where you are, where you've been, who your contacts are, the things you discuss with them and the information you look up on the internet. It'll know all of your non-cash money transactions and it'll be able to identify you based on biometric characteristics. And it will have this information not just of you, but of around a billion people.
Not everybody thinks such surveillance capabilities are an unfortunate by-product of a system created for other purposes, in their eyes it's not a bug, it's a feature. One government official said “Linking Aadhaar [to SIM cards] is still a better option […] as Aadhaar is also being linked with PAN card and bank account numbers, it can be used to trace the financial as well as social whereabouts of a person," reported DNA India.
If Aadhaar evolves into a system linking all kinds of data-generating devices and activities of over a billion people, its surveillance capabilities will be unprecedented. A government (or other entity) with access to such a database will have a tremendous power. It creates an asymmetric relationship in which individual citizens and society as a whole will be extremely transparent to the government, while it needs to disclose nothing of itself. Moreover, the cost of all-pervasive mass surveillance will be negligible.
“I am [...] opposed to the use of biometrics for identification and authentication; this is nothing but surveillance”, Abraham told Business Standard. “It is exactly the same argument that Apple is giving while refusing back-door entry to intelligence and investigating agencies. Once you build surveillance capacity for good governance, it may be misused by a repressive government, a rogue corporation or by criminals.”
In his presentation about the Aadhaar system, Chief Architect Varma explains it is interoperable, scalable and modular: “Built truly as an 'online identity platform' enabling many Government and private applications”. And, it must be said, based on a cursory view of the specifications provided by Varma the Aadhaar system appears to be a truly impressive piece of technology. As an instrument of governance, however, it is terrifying.
The applications the Indian government is adding to the system include linking cell phone data and banking transactions to Aadhaar numbers. In 2015 a pilot project was announced enabling people to buy SIM cards with their Aadhaar number.
When all of this data is collected in a central database, a system could emerge that knows just about everything. Based on smartphone data it knows where you are, where you've been, who your contacts are, the things you discuss with them and the information you look up on the internet. It'll know all of your non-cash money transactions and it'll be able to identify you based on biometric characteristics. And it will have this information not just of you, but of around a billion people.
Not everybody thinks such surveillance capabilities are an unfortunate by-product of a system created for other purposes, in their eyes it's not a bug, it's a feature. One government official said “Linking Aadhaar [to SIM cards] is still a better option […] as Aadhaar is also being linked with PAN card and bank account numbers, it can be used to trace the financial as well as social whereabouts of a person," reported DNA India.
If Aadhaar evolves into a system linking all kinds of data-generating devices and activities of over a billion people, its surveillance capabilities will be unprecedented. A government (or other entity) with access to such a database will have a tremendous power. It creates an asymmetric relationship in which individual citizens and society as a whole will be extremely transparent to the government, while it needs to disclose nothing of itself. Moreover, the cost of all-pervasive mass surveillance will be negligible.
“I am [...] opposed to the use of biometrics for identification and authentication; this is nothing but surveillance”, Abraham told Business Standard. “It is exactly the same argument that Apple is giving while refusing back-door entry to intelligence and investigating agencies. Once you build surveillance capacity for good governance, it may be misused by a repressive government, a rogue corporation or by criminals.”
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