Aadhaar isn’t progress – it’s dystopian and dangerous
OMG Mozilla. No wonder open internet is in such a bad shape when we have you leading it.<p>1) Aadhaar is not fundamentally different than a National ID which every other country in this world has. India not only lacked it, out birth registrations certificates weren&#x27;t reliable at all.<p>2) Yes they do collection Biometrics(BM). But BM are never shared with any other agency&#x2F;company. And it&#x27;s strictly codified in law. BM are only used for deduplication(1b+ population), and authentication.<p>3) For KYC(Know your Customer) or E-Payments BM based authentication is much more secure than what&#x27;s being used currently - signatures, and self attested xerox which anyone can forge&#x2F;photoshop.<p>4) You can also ask Aadhaar server to dispatch an SMS to your mobile number every time an authentication happens. Now compare that your signature&#x2F;xerox which anyone can forge&#x2F;photoshop and you would have no idea about it.<p>5) In this changing world who would you want to control identity? A private company like Apple which can block you or some developer anytime and there would be no recourse? Or a govt agency - backed by a law of Parliament - that you can drag to court.<p>6) Want to build a marketplace for house-maids? Or for farmers? Don&#x27;t want it bogged down by scamsters which in the end depressing adaption?<p>Easy add Aadhaar based autnetication to your app. <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;bridge.aadhaarconnect.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;bridge.aadhaarconnect.com&#x2F;</a><p>7) For financial products like bank accounts, mutual funds etc Aadhaar brings down compliance cost. So for a MF while in the old system it wouldn&#x27;t be viable to take an investment of less than 50k Rs because the compliance cost itself would be 1k Rs or something, now you can do it under 10 Rs.<p>Are we making a better world or not, in which the poor have access to Mutual funds, Insurance etc or Mozilla thinks it&#x27;s not?<p>Please watch this <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;LJCEyqcKN3Q?t=5m50s" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;LJCEyqcKN3Q?t=5m50s</a> and tell me which other country in this world can match this. Getting a loan in under 8 minutes. Or opening a bank account in under 10 min.<p>This is a technological revolution - but not happening in Copenhagen or Zurich, but dusty villages of India.<p>I have had enough of these Aadhaar critics - and now Mozilla - who have colonised their minds with some western ideas, and are unable to see what&#x27;s happening in India.<p>Bottom line, there&#x27;s no better example of how technology can drastically change lives for the poor and the needy than Aadhaar.<p>Those who are unable to see it, are usually just biased because need clicks for their publications, or need to build their reputation as security analyst or something by bashing something. Look into this thread itself, and you&#x27;ll find them linking to each other&#x27;s twitter profile etc. Sickening really.