‘Big Brother’ in India Requires Fingerprint Scans for Food, Phones and Finances

As a tech professional, it's extra disturbing the way the government pushes these harebrained schemes by marketing them as 'Digital India', 'India Stack', etc. thus getting visiting dignitaries from other countries to lap it up. We really need to be careful that we don't whitewash autocratic bureaucracy by branding it digital innovation.

Note the spin from Aadhaar proponents in this NYT article--that it's the equivalent of building interstate highways, or that citizens are the biggest beneficiaries. They neglect to mention that the program is mandatory. If people were truly benefiting, they wouldn't need to force everyone to link so many of their life activities with this database--we'd do it voluntarily.

During the demonetization disaster of Nov 2016 (in which 86% of the cash value in circulation was deemed unusable overnight), once the problems became clear, the government went on a massive PR spree saying that despite the problems faced by ordinary people, the policy will spur 'digital payments'. 18 months later it's clear that this was a stupid claim--the cash in circulation has matched or exceeded the amount that was demonetized. I wrote about this at the time here but I'm still very upset about what went down and the whole 'ooh this will lead to digital innovation!11' deflection. https://hackernoon.com/i-boycott-paytm-5df93d189356

Something related: it doesn't inspire confidence when the person who runs UIDAI (the government organization running the fingerprint program) says this:

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/aadhaar-data-safe-behind-5-i...

> Aadhaar Data Safe Behind 5 Feet Thick Walls: Centre to Supreme Court

This just shows how poor the understanding of digital security is...

This article gives a good overview of the promises and issues of the Aadhar system. I might be wrong but it doesn't add anything new which hasn't been covered in other Aadhar related articles submitted earlier.

The system has done some good. Mostly in the public schemes area where it was originally intended to stop corruption.

But, there are some serious issues with the system.

First is the internet infrastructure. As mentioned in the article, a lady had to register for it thrice because the system wouldn't load the data. That doesn't surprise me a bit because the internet infrastructure is so poor that even 512kbps is defined as "broadband".

There is a funny interview of a supposed Income Tax guy:

https://youtu.be/AnxrJiS5uKU?t=135

He equates "cloud computing" to actual clouds. And posits that if people's data in put in cloud and rains then the person is screwed out of his benefits. As stupid as it sounds, over reliance on Aadhar means people might not get their benefits if the Aadhar system is down. And given the poor internet infrastructure, that is a real concern.

Second is the creeping coverage. The system is slowly outgrowing is intended usage from public schemes to invading into private lives. Now telephones and banks need the data. It was promised that the data will never be used for forensics. But given the data stash, it is not stopping lower courts from trying to access it.

> how does a state go about providing services to its citizen if the state cannot identify citizens as its own and as unique entities. Both being necessary conditions.

Are they, really? It's not like the government is buying people cars. They're handing out food to starving children. If people are hungry, give them food. Don't make them jump through hoops for it.

Perhaps my problem is that I see it as an American. Americans are citizens of their country whether they can prove it or not. Whether they can pass an ID scan or not. It's one of the reasons why voter ID proposals are so vocally opposed. I am a citizen, just as I am a human being. I do not need to prove it to exist. I didn't even have a Social Security number until I was an adult and wanted to start work. It wasn't until the tax authorities made SSN's mandatory to deduct dependents from your taxes that people started registering their babies at birth.

However, in some other nations, people don't think of themselves as citizens unless they have the blessing of their government in the form of a document or a registration number.

Americans look at the Soviet Union, and other failed states and worry about what happens when a particular group of people falls out of favor and can be disenfranchised with the click of a button.

> Americans are citizens of their country whether they can prove it or not. Whether they can pass an ID scan or not. It's one of the reasons why voter ID proposals are so vocally opposed. I am a citizen, just as I am a human being. I do not need to prove it to exist.

I hope you mean this in jest as this privilege does not apply to vast swathes of the population.