Aadhaar makes every Indian vulnerable to identity theft
I was saying this from day 1, when US NSA forced Government Of India to start Biometric database of Indians, almost at Gunpoint . US Department Of State ordered if passports can't be verified with Biometric data, they will not be issuing Work permit Visas .
So the south asian countries which needed to export skilled manpower to US all agreed , not just India but Pakistan and Bangladesh too. After all, remittances from US based nationals was and still is , a pleasant and certain source of valuable foreign currencies for which these governments have to do absolutely nothing at all.
Indian Biometric Unique Identity database, can to be Known as Aadhaar.
Although Supreme Court in India gave a series of verdicts and observations ..
... over the years and Government of India continuously lied in front of the court and to the people of India about cyber Security of aadhaar database .
For example, they said all 10 fingerprints are needed for aadhaar UID generation.. in an affidavit to Supreme Court. LIE, clearly a falsehood: At the time of registration, every Indian were given an official paper record which had details of Biometric data captured and there it is printed how many fingers' fingerprints were taken. A tick mark and a cross mark were placed next to the diagram of two palms. Cross mark represents a missing finger or UIDAI scanner failed to convert the fingerprint into a digital record. Still millions were given an aadhaar Id based on few fingerprints and they are asked every now and then to update their Biometric Data.
Supreme COURT had said , private companies like telecom or banks can't ask for Biometric data. Still that is the norm for opening new accounts in bank or getting a new telephone number or even a cooking gas cylinder.
All Permanent Account Number (PAN) issued by Income Tax Dept of Government of India are now linked with aadhaar or rendered Inoperative (hmm .. so PAN cards were not that Permanent, after all). This however with the blessings of another Supreme Court order which contradicted the previous larger bench Order.
Enter The Darkweb
For last 7 years, we were spotting the aadhaar data were leaked in internet and they are being sold too.
Of course, nobody buys only Name and aadhaar number over Internet unless it comes with Verifiable Biometric Data as well.
Every time, Me and some other people pointed out the data breaches and security flaws.. An army of Stupid Nationalist Trolls would attack us online.
If only Trolling were a cyber security tool, but alas they are not and breaches continued relentlessly and now in largest sale of Biometric Data from India's Covid Vaccine Database , aadhaar data got stolen and sold.
Who allowed COWIN to store aadhaar's Biometric data ? Who allowed COWIN to access aadhaar's database ?
Well, COWIN was designed for future monetization and selling Indian citizens Medical records to private insurance companies and hospitals for profit and even stored data of people, who bought the Covid vaccine for hundreds of rupees. So people who paid for their vaccine shots but gave aadhaar as proof of identity.. yes, their data got stolen .
Although Media has been told,
A. Not to highlight this.
B. Not to Biometric Data but use PII ( Personally Identifiable Information) instead.
The scale of data is so huge this time, 815 million people's data were stolen .
And since, stupid Prime minister now allows India's digital payment network UPI to be used from overseas, all those people who have aadhaar linked bank accounts and are among these 815 poor suckers (citizens who surrender their Biometric data to a Government Database.. well, they are suckers) are now susceptible to bank withdrawal from bots running in high speed internet overseas.
Stupidity is the fastest growing religion in India now, specially among aadhaar carrying Indians. If Government of India, makes another shady and unsafe Database, API or App.. These 815 million will take a day off from office or work and queue up register and surrender more of personal liberty and constitutionally guaranteed freedoms .