Multipurpose National Identity Card for us?

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The government has finally showcased that they are serious about the Multipurpose National Identity Card system for us Indians.

Unique Identification Authority of India now has a new chairman in the form of Nandan Nilekani who has interestingly left Infosys for this project.

The government claims that this card would benefit the country and the people in several ways…

Some of the highlighted points are:

People eligible for subsidies and other benefits would have a proof
Would address illegal immigration
Would help in countering the terrorist threats
Would become a solid proof of someone’s existence

Now, the problems are several. We all know that this system would require massive investments and continues effort to make it a success. I am more worried about the privacy implications of this mechanism. I do not want to be given an identification number just because the government wants to make it easier for them to identify me. We have no social security system in our country. The government does little on that front. The indirect involvement of Infosys in the whole project raises more issues. Nilekani might have ‘left’ Infosys, but we all know he is not going to become an outsider for them just like that. In fact, Infosys has already announced that they are going to bid for this project. Wah bhai wah!

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equark

Privacy from government in India? We already have PAN cards, driving licences, passports and voter ID cards each of which uniquely identify you. You can’t have a phone number without submitting a proof of address. You can’t have a legal income without having a PAN card. Most educated citizens of India already have something that uniquely identifies them to the government.

Assuming the fourth paragraph as a list of points,
1. We already have a Rasan card or something for this, isn’t it?
2. Dunno about this.
3. Read as: We want more control and info about you.
4. There are 4 cards which already do that.

This also consolidates all present ID cards into one, which is a scary thought. The card becomes the only thing that identifies you, and if you lose your card, good luck. With several identity cards, you can still identify yourself to the government in case you lose one. And it also makes it much easier to track a person with just one unique ID rather than around 4.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multipurpose_National... is really scary.

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equark

Privacy from government in India? We already have PAN cards, driving licences, passports and voter ID cards each of which uniquely identify you. You can't have a phone number without submitting a proof of address. You can't have a legal income without having a PAN card. Most educated citizens of India already have something that uniquely identifies them to the government.

Assuming the fourth paragraph as a list of points,
1. We already have a Rasan card or something for this, isn't it?
2. Dunno about this.
3. Read as: We want more control and info about you.
4. There are 4 cards which already do that.

This also consolidate all present ID cards into one, which is a scary thought. The card becomes the only thing that identifies you, and if you lose your card, good luck. With several identity cards, you can still identify yourself to the government in case you lose one. And it also makes it much easier to track a person with just one unique ID rather than around 4.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multipurpose_National... is really scary.

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
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