Comment by samblr | Hacker News Reader

Comment by samblr | Hacker News Reader

Who has power to abuse in unique identification system (aadhaar) - individual or state? State.

Where does the state in questions stand in corruption ratings, human development index ? very low.

(Looking up in internet) Latest use of aadhar seems to be in mobile internet via Jio telecom - they've used aadhar as identification. How is this not dystopian ? with most of country relying on mobile internet alone and state knowing their entire web activity - how is not dystopian?

Going by a similar analogy - Should a US citizen use SSN to get a home-worker-robot from a private company like (Google,SpaceX) to help with all daily chores ? BIG NO

India has also been known for its infamous caste society (read prejudice) for few millenia - will unique identification help eradicate or increase the problem further ? can anybody explain which applies here and how ?

Although I am not against having an unique ID for citizens in a country. Such systems will become easy tools for few powerful. We so often get rants in HN about facebook(and others) abusing privacy (listening to audio, tracking most of our web browsing).

How is with aadhar and facts above help prevent a state or private-company or mix-of-both-them not become big brother ?

edit: removed a sentence which got repeated.

> (Looking up in internet) Latest use of aadhar seems to be in mobile internet via Jio telecom - they've used aadhar as identification. How is this not dystopian ? with most of country relying on mobile internet alone and state knowing their entire web activity - how is not dystopian?

Aadhaar has nothing to do with you web activity. It's used as KYC - Know your Customer - for getting the JIO connection. It's optional, and as an alternative you can submit a xerox of any ID documents for your KYC. Most european countries require an ID document to get a mobile connection as well - Italy for example.

> Going by a similar analogy - Should a US citizen use SSN to get a home-woker-robot from a private company like (Google,SpaceX) to help with all daily chores ? BIG NO

More apt analogy would be that should a US citizen use SSN to to get a bank account at Citibank? BIG YES

> India has also been known for its infamous caste society (read prejudice) for few millenia - will unique identification help eradicate or increase the problem further ? can anybody explain which applies here and how ?

That has nothing to do with Aadhaar so I would ignore it.

> Where does the state in questions stand in corruption ratings, human development index ? very low.

It's also one of the freest countries in Asia according to Freedom House, and has robust institutions. It's the world's biggest democracy for 70 years now - during which western countries like Spain and Portugal were rules by dictators.

Please keep you condescending attitude to yourself. Indias are well informed to make an informed choice in this matter, and they have.

EDIT IN RESPONSE TO YOUR EDIT:

> How is with aadhar and facts above help prevent a state or private-company or mix-of-both-them not become big brother ?

Because Mister it's only used for KYC. Aadhaar system only stores a few attributes - Name/DOB/gender/address-if-available. That's data every goverment in this world keeps of its citizens. Do you understand now how you and Mozilla are fear mongering?

>> It's used as KYC - Know your Customer - for getting the JIO connection

Ok, I am Jio SIM company. So I have your aadhar KYC or a xerox of your aadhar card as well. How as a citizen, can you trust me (a private company) to not pass your web activity to state. eg: say you are an NGO using JIO sim and is working for getting rid of big corruption in state. How will you ensure my company and state will not track your every web activity ? It all sounds familiar when you know privacy concerns of Chinese humanitarians - read great firewall of internet.

>> It's the world's biggest democracy for 70 years now.

How does being biggest in numbers help in democracy ? Democracy is pretty old my friend. 70 years is again a very small age in democracy.

> It all sounds familiar when you know privacy concerns of Chinese humanitarians - read great firewall of internet.

That has nothing to do wit Aadhaar or India. All European nations require an ID to get a mobile connection. That risk would exist in any country Aadhaar or no Aadhaar. What's your point?

> How does being biggest in numbers help in democracy ? Democracy is pretty old my friend. 70 years is again a very small age in democracy.

Mister because it show the strength of democratic institutions and freedom in a country. Even when compared to richer european nations like Spain/Portugal. Please look at freedom house rating for asian nations before being so condescending.

I have worked in two Western European countries and none required me to provide any Id lest alone unique id.

As I see you are doing BS.

> https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g187768-c5431/Italy:Sim.C...

> Purchasing a SIM in Italy requires presentation of proper identification, such as valid passport or European ID card

This conversation just illustrate the quality of arguments Anti Aadhaar lobby has in this thread.

> As I see you are doing BS.

This violates the HN guidelines. Please edit such incivility out of your comments here. Your first sentence was just fine.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> Aadhaar has nothing to do with you web activity. It's used as KYC - Know your Customer - for getting the JIO connection. It's optional, and as an alternative you can submit a xerox of any ID documents for your KYC.

You forgot to mention that if you take xerox you will be charged 200 rs and a delay of at-least a week and if you provide Aadhaar you will get almost immediately.

"Also JIO will not use Aadhaar for spying on users browsing activity" is based on trust and not by design. Not everyone trusts Reliance or any corporation because it is run by many people and one human is sufficient to abuse.

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