India creating new identity card system for 1.2Bn people
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Re: India creating new identity card system for 1.2Bn people
#2The article includes a good discussion of the governmental issues involved in implementing this plan in India. I'd love to see links to articles about this from the Indian press.
Re: India creating new identity card system for 1.2Bn people
#3Wow, they are going to be the first country to self-consciously grapple with all kinds of fascinating privacy issues that emerge from this kind of system. In most countries, as far as I know, privacy depends on the crappiness of government IT and the difficulty of systems integration. It's mostly accidental. In a powerful, well-designed system, you have to decide to have privacy. This is an exciting prospect -- India is by far not the worst country to be investigating these issues. They are democratic and are familiar with the problems of corrupt officials. I think people in countries where corruption is not a problem are too willing to trust the good intentions of their government officials. It's very educational to see how ruthless and venal people are when systems are not in place to stop them.
Re: India creating new identity card system for 1.2Bn people
#4Wow, they are going to be the first country to self-consciously grapple with all kinds of fascinating privacy issues that emerge from this kind of system. In most countries, as far as I know, privacy depends on the crappiness of government IT and the difficulty of systems integration. It's mostly accidental. In a powerful, well-designed system, you have to decide to have privacy. This is an exciting prospect -- India…
I'm curious which countries your are thinking of where government corruption is not a problem?
Re: India creating new identity card system for 1.2Bn people
#5Wow, they are going to be the first country to self-consciously grapple with all kinds of fascinating privacy issues that emerge from this kind of system. In most countries, as far as I know, privacy depends on the crappiness of government IT and the difficulty of systems integration. It's mostly accidental. In a powerful, well-designed system, you have to decide to have privacy. This is an exciting prospect -- India…
I'm curious which countries your are thinking of where government corruption is not a problem?
I concur, it is a natural force. We have an instruction that says, "let's see how far we can take this" until some force or law stops us.
Think of something crazy to do right now... someone has done it. Because they took it too far.
"No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. " -Abraham Lincoln
Re: India creating new identity card system for 1.2Bn people
#6Wow, they are going to be the first country to self-consciously grapple with all kinds of fascinating privacy issues that emerge from this kind of system. In most countries, as far as I know, privacy depends on the crappiness of government IT and the difficulty of systems integration. It's mostly accidental. In a powerful, well-designed system, you have to decide to have privacy. This is an exciting prospect -- India…
I'm curious which countries your are thinking of where government corruption is not a problem?
In the US, citizens don't have to pay bribes, perhaps with the exception of getting government business. You don't have to pay bribes to get a marriage license, get a crime investigated, get your garbage collected, get fair treatment in court, or get your child admitted to a good school.
Larger-scale, more obscure corruption thrives. Everybody knows that most political campaign contributions are made with the expectation of a return on investment. If you're an ordinary citizen, though, you don't have to worry about being shaken down by a bureaucrat or a traffic cop.
Re: India creating new identity card system for 1.2Bn people
#7Wow, they are going to be the first country to self-consciously grapple with all kinds of fascinating privacy issues that emerge from this kind of system. In most countries, as far as I know, privacy depends on the crappiness of government IT and the difficulty of systems integration. It's mostly accidental. In a powerful, well-designed system, you have to decide to have privacy. This is an exciting prospect -- India…
I live in India & I agree - there is horrendous amount of corruption. And the unique identification number project might not change anything when it comes to illegal immigrants, terrorists.
However as the article highlights this would give me one power for which I am okay to bear the grunt of privacy issues: I can (at least proactively) ensure my identity is not misused & if it is, I can at least be aware of it - stop it & probably dig in more.
Right now I have a ration card which is particularly necessary to get a cooking gas connection (which btw is of scarce availability - again corruption). There might be a person living at my native or hometown who is aware I am not availing the facility and probably using a duplicate card or something. There is no system to quickly check if this is happening. With the new initiative I hope it would be difficult to duplicate & easy to track. At the least these processes will get digitized the right way, given Nilekani is heading it & not yet another uneducated/ corrupt politician.
Edit: phrase correction.
Re: India creating new identity card system for 1.2Bn people
#8I had predicted here ( http://cycle-gap.blogspot.com/2009/06/all-honourable-men.htm... ):
"As the good old days of inflated head counts and billing rates comes to an end for Indian outsourcing companies, the big outsourcing companies will bid for, and push for huge local government projects."
It's amazing how uncritically such huge projects are treated by the press in India - privacy issues, potential conflict of interest for the person leading this effort (Nilekani). Public discussion in India in general is very worshipful of proposals like this or the usage of voting machines - there is little to no discussion of the meta issues like privacy, corruption, etc.
Re: India creating new identity card system for 1.2Bn people
#9Wow, they are going to be the first country to self-consciously grapple with all kinds of fascinating privacy issues that emerge from this kind of system. In most countries, as far as I know, privacy depends on the crappiness of government IT and the difficulty of systems integration. It's mostly accidental. In a powerful, well-designed system, you have to decide to have privacy. This is an exciting prospect -- India…
I'm curious which countries your are thinking of where government corruption is not a problem?
I'm curious which countries your are thinking of where government corruption is not a problem?
It is less of a problem in some countries than others, by more than an order of magnitude. Transparency International is one organization that publishes studies of corruption in different countries.
Re: India creating new identity card system for 1.2Bn people
#10I had predicted here ( http://cycle-gap.blogspot.com/2009/06/all-honourable-men.htm... ): "As the good old days of inflated head counts and billing rates comes to an end for Indian outsourcing companies, the big outsourcing companies will bid for, and push for huge local government projects." It's amazing how uncritically such huge projects are treated by the press in India - privacy issues, potential conflict of int…
I don't really see how this is a bad thing. The government will not use these cards to track you or anything. It's just a universal ID card. Proving that you exist is a big problem back here, mostly because everyone has their own definition of "proof of identity". If one universal proof of identity exists, you can just show the middle finger to anybody who makes you jump through bureaucratic hoops.