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Comment by owaislone | Hacker News Reader

"Government of India has made it mandatory to link your Aadhar number with your Tez account. Please link your Aadhar number to enjoy uninterrupted service." - Waiting for this to happen. My Indian friends say they are getting these messages from the Income Tax department, their banks and even their ISPs, e-wallets providers, telcoms etc.

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Unless an order comes from the Supreme court, you can conveniently ignore all these messages. So far, the Supreme court has not mandated mobile/payments app linking with Aadhaar. Given the recent win in the privacy battle, Aadhaar proponents will find it hard to mandate linking Aadhaar with every goddamn financial activity.

This. I don't understand why government is actively pushing their schemes, when supreme court clearly tells it to not.

This is a story i'm trying to understand. 1. Indian Government wants to emulate something like SSN (in the US) as a single identifier for every citizen in this country. 2. This is an easy way for a Government to track the actions of every individual digitally and financially - end of Privacy!

1) SSN is not really a model for a unique identifier for every citizen. Immigrants have SSNs too, and can have different ones if they have done multiple stays in the country. You also can live without an SSN in the US.

2) I mean... the government is entitled to know where your money is coming from if they are asking you for taxes. otherwise, there would be no way to combat tax fraud. This is not a new thing.

Why not confine this number to banking, then.

yes, just read the news that driving licenses have to be linked with aadhar. Phone numbers have to be too. Pretty soon it would be impossible to do anything without aadhar = end of privacy

With the heavy push for linking it almost everywhere, the government could also use it against individual citizens (dissidents) to cause "civil death" - can't drive, can't use bank accounts, can't study in schools/colleges, can't have a cell phone number, can't have a salaried job (where tax is deducted at source and PAN is expected to be linked), can't get pension...can't even conduct a funeral for a relative (this is the latest move - death certificates require Aadhaar of the dead or that of a close relative).

It's truly "one number to rule them all"!!! In the hands of an oppressive government, dissent can be easily stifled and quelled!

But the way Aadhaar usage is being conceived by the Govt it seems to do more with the "tracking" aspect of it than finding trails of money. In fact it has little to do with the "money". For that we already have had PAN numbers (in case of individuals) which are unique and the Govt and the Income Tax department has record of it, so do the banks.

Also, the way Aadhaar has been handled by the private contractors (the way the contracts were given are also very questionable), and the way they have gotten unrestricted, unregulated access to it (and it doesn't seem someone has been done to curb this) is really disconcerting as a citizen.

Then, there's "Snoopgate". It was hushed as if it never existed.

You are right. Remember those days when SIM card agents used to sell our data to marketing firms (and use to stalk girls), when those kind of amateurs get to handle Aadhar registration - the result would be data leaks!

Regarding (2) there already was an idea for that. It's called PAN. Your comment seems a little disingenuous on purpose.

Not sure if you're from or are in India. Aadhaar is for residents in India, not just citizens. Anyone who's been resident in India for 180 days is eligible to get it. Since Aadhaar also has an "introducer system" where one can apply for it without any documentation but with an Aadhaar holder vouching for them, almost anyone in the country can easily get one.

The passport office accepts Aadhaar as proof of identity and proof of address. So any resident can get an Aadhaar and then get a passport, effectively getting citizenship!

Lots of countries have single (or even multiple) identifiers for every one of their citizens. It's not the end of privacy, it's business as usual.

Related, I wonder how the UK deals with their citizens not having a national ID?

We ask citizens to verify their identity with either passport, driving license or other forms of id alongside perhaps some evidence of bills that have been delivered to their address.

We would have had ids a decade ago if the government didn't try to tie it into an encompassing database that would have allowed the Home Office to perform joins between driving, health and police records at whim. Also that legislation would have explicitly allowed the Home Office to effectively repeal citizenship at a touch of a button as it was also going to be used as the only means of access to healthcare and benefits. If they'd been less greedy with the initial implementation they could have started down this road. If they had a track record of delivering IT projects we might have trusted them.

The main problem they have is the aadhar(the unique id) is linked with fingerprint and retina scans

Most UK government databases associated with identity are keyed by National Insurance Number ( NINO ) which is issued at age 15 years 11 months

It died in west long ago why not in third world if it can bring social upliftment?

The recent decision of Supreme Court about right to privacy will prevent this in future. I'm not sure about what exactly will happen to Adhaar ID but, we may see that linking-it-with-every-account thing reduced a lot.

I remember 1-1.5 years ago, the Supreme Court had asked the government to publish widely in print and electronic media to make it clear that Aadhar was not mandatory. It was never done. I don't really see a situation where the government would back out of Aadhar, regardless of supreme court rulings. The court has reiterated this many times but the government has shown that it does not care.

“The Union of India shall give wide publicity in the electronic and print media including radio and television networks that it is not mandatory for a citizen to obtain an Aadhaar card.”

Source: http://www.livelaw.in/supreme-court-says-aadhaar-act-keeps-u...

What's puzzled me over the years is that the Supreme Court has, in the intervening period, taken suo moto cognizance and action on other issues/topics, but hasn't really come down hard on the government about this. Despite media coverage on people dying without getting pension or food rations, the central and state governments have been pushing ahead to cut expenditure on welfare schemes heavily through this route.

But bank accounts already require Aadhaar, and Tez is linked with your bank account, so I suppose in a way it's already mandatory?

Bank account is already linked so no need for separate link to Aadhar.

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