Aadhaar isn’t progress – it’s dystopian and dangerous

I think the problem here is ultimately that people aren't doing proper threat modeling, and failing to include the government itself as a potential threat.

The most terrifying consulting contract I've ever been offered was a project to entirely replace cash in a country with a "blockchain" currency scheme. In addition to the requirements that both buyer and seller be 100% identified (likely by biometrics), there was also a requirement that every receipt be uploaded to a government run server, allowing exactly what was being bought to be tracked in detail in real-time. And of course, there was the requirement that it be possible to freeze accounts on demand.

I asked the client what country the project was ultimately going to be for, and they didn't really want to tell me (citing NDA's and what not). But I did get them to finally admit it wasn't a democracy, it was a dictatorship.

Pretty obvious that dictatorship wanted even more control over their citizens. Needless to say, I turned the contract down as being involved would be incredibly unethical.

But how much more ethical is it really to do the same type of project in a country that's supposed to be a democracy? I'm not so sure there's a clear difference, given how quickly privacy protections can be removed. Look at how census data was used to round up the Japanese in the USA during WWII for instance.

The riots happened in 2002 and NOT 2001 (at least get the year right), and unless you are arguing abolishing voter lists, or have a specific argument that involves Aadhar. I don't see how this is in anyway relevant to this discussion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_riots_of_2001

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Gujarat_riots

We all know we could reduce crime by putting cameras in people's homes. But we don't do that, because there are risks to those kinds of invasive measures.

Aadhar is infrastructure that allows for centralized control of the population. Sometimes that control will be used for good things, like stamping out bribery. But that control can just as easily be used for evil too. And history has shown time and time again that's exactly what happens. I live in Canada, a country filled with refugees of authoritarian regimes. Among my friends I personally know lots of people who have fled those kinds of regimes; I know very few people who have fled countries because of bribery. The latter is annoying and unproductive, but the former is deadly.

That's why you're seeing so much opposition to Aadhar: because it's incredibly dangerous.

edit: better wording

> Even worse, the government of India is selling access to this database to private companies to use and combine with other datasets as they wish. This would allow companies to have access to some of your most intimate details and create detailed profiles of you, in ways you can’t necessarily see or control.

Liar, the information they get is your name/dob/gender/adress-if-available because that's all the Aadhaar system stores. Which they would already have since you are signing up to be their customer - mobile company for example.

These are intimate details, or are you delusional? Btw, these are also public details in voter id list which are on the internet, and anyone can look at.

> The government can also share user data “in the interest of national security,” a term that remains dangerously undefined

Which country has been able to define the term "National Security"? And a district magistrate has to approve the request. This is true for all data, just that in Aadhaar law it's codified.

> There are little to no protections on how Aadhaar data is used, and certainly no meaningful user consent.

What data? For subsidies govt already knows who you are. If you don't want to share you name/gender/dob with a private compnay don't use Aadhaar to authenticate.

Why force your choice on me, which loves getting an activated mobile connection in 15 min. Or gets access to Mutual funds and Insurance since complaince cost got reduces from 1k Rs to 10 Rs.

> India can solve its problems by its own when it recognizes that beyond money, there are people who are willing to support its technology movement. Competant tech people have time and again come out against the architecture of the solution - the last to suffer for it was Kiran Jonnalgadda (jackerhack on twitter).

Oh, so it's all about self promotion for your consultancy in the guise of privacy. Hope you get more clicks, Kiran Jonnalgadda!

Good job Mozilla. You prove you are really delusional.