The much vaunted National ID card scheme (a.k.a. Unique ID or ‘Aadhar’) has been launched by the PM. The original country, UK which proposed and commenced issuing such cards has discontinued it due to privacy concerns. But our own great PM, will he listen?
Nope, not a chance – and Nilekani should be able to talk the tongue-of-techies and bamboozle everyone; in fact he has done it.
He can hoodwink the good PM and his Ministers, he can do the gullible public, who in any case do not understand the privacy issues. But as they say, you can never hoodwink all the people, all the time. Just 5 days before the launch of this ‘Unique’ scheme, came the damning report from the National Research Council, US which blandly states Biometric Recognition Technologies *Inherently Fallible*. The report questions everything about Biometric Recognition, not just one aspect.
Similar points in my posts -
Nilekani preparing ground to take cover, and
UIDAI database is ‘You Die’ Database in May and June 2010,
unsurprisingly, attracted little attention – but as they say ‘Do your work; Don’t expect reward’.
They want to implement a scheme for which there are no ISO standards for even *operational* *testing* – forget about actual working systems. Concerns about privacy and due process are not of much concern in India, and it appears that is the case especially with this PM.
There is the Ponds White Beauty ad which shows a girl unable to clear face scanner security check while entering the work place, after 7 days of treatment (can’t find YouTube video) – which appears not so far fetched now.
BTW, the report had inputs from DARPA, the CIA and DHS of the USA, who would have had more experience, ideas and technical knowledge than Nilakeni and his cohorts.
Nope, not a chance – and Nilekani should be able to talk the tongue-of-techies and bamboozle everyone; in fact he has done it.
He can hoodwink the good PM and his Ministers, he can do the gullible public, who in any case do not understand the privacy issues. But as they say, you can never hoodwink all the people, all the time. Just 5 days before the launch of this ‘Unique’ scheme, came the damning report from the National Research Council, US which blandly states Biometric Recognition Technologies *Inherently Fallible*. The report questions everything about Biometric Recognition, not just one aspect.
- Even situations where *imposters* are *rare*, high false alarms are generated
- Biometric characteristics may change due to age, disease, stress or other factors
- Calibration of sensors, degradation of data, and security breaches affect system performance
- Trustworthiness of the biometric recognition process cannot rely on secrecy of data, since biometric traits can be publicly known or accessed
- Same biometric trait can be used by different systems, and weaknesses in one system could compromise its use in another system
- International standards community guidelines for *operational* *testing* are still under development – meaning even testing is not yet ISO compliant
- And the most damning point: When used for enrolment or entitlement to a benefit, biometric systems could disenfranchise people who are unable to participate for physical, social, or cultural reasons. Use of biometrics— especially in applications driven by public policy, where participation is enforced —merits careful oversight and to avoid violating privacy and due process rights
Similar points in my posts -
Nilekani preparing ground to take cover, and
UIDAI database is ‘You Die’ Database in May and June 2010,
unsurprisingly, attracted little attention – but as they say ‘Do your work; Don’t expect reward’.
They want to implement a scheme for which there are no ISO standards for even *operational* *testing* – forget about actual working systems. Concerns about privacy and due process are not of much concern in India, and it appears that is the case especially with this PM.
There is the Ponds White Beauty ad which shows a girl unable to clear face scanner security check while entering the work place, after 7 days of treatment (can’t find YouTube video) – which appears not so far fetched now.
BTW, the report had inputs from DARPA, the CIA and DHS of the USA, who would have had more experience, ideas and technical knowledge than Nilakeni and his cohorts.
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