Rahul Bhatia

Critics of Aadhaar Say They Are Under Surveillance, Allege Government Harassment

Opponents of Aadhaar have said it could be used as an instrument of state surveillance while data security and privacy regulations are still to be framed.

A man goes through the process of eye scanning for the Unique Identification (UID) database system at a registration centre in New Delhi, India, January 17, 2018. Credit: Reuters/Saumya Khandelwal

A man goes through the process of eye scanning for the Unique Identification database system at a registration centre in New Delhi, India, January 17, 2018. Credit: Reuters/Saumya Khandelwal

Mumbai: Researchers and journalists who have identified loopholes in India’s massive national identity card project have said they have been slapped with criminal cases or harassed by government agencies because of their work.

Last month, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) filed a criminal case against The Tribune for publishing a story that said access to the card’s database could be bought for 500 rupees.

Reuters spoke to eight additional researchers, activists and journalists who have complained of being harassed after writing about Aadhaar. They said UIDAI and other government agencies were extremely sensitive to criticism of the Aadhaar programme.

Aadhaar is becoming integral to the digitisation of India’s economy, with over 1.1 billion users and the world’s biggest database.

Indians have been asked to furnish their Aadhaar numbers for a host of transactions including accessing bank accounts, paying taxes, receiving subsidies, acquiring a mobile number, settling a property deal and registering a marriage.

The Tribune said one of its reporters purchased access to a portal that could provide data linked to any Aadhaar cardholder.

The UIDAI complaint, filed with the police cyber cell in New Delhi, accused the newspaper, the reporter and others of cheating by impersonation, forgery and unauthorised access to a computer network.

Media associations sharply criticised the action – the Editors Guild of India said UIDAI’s move was “clearly meant to browbeat a journalist whose story was of great public interest. It is unfair, unjustified and a direct attack on the freedom of the press.”

In response, the agency said “an impression was being created in media that UIDAI is targeting the media or whistleblowers or shooting the messenger.”

Also read: UIDAI’s Defensive Stance on Aadhaar Security Breaches Isn’t Helping Anybody but the Government

“That is not at all true. It is for the act of unauthorised access, criminal proceedings have been launched,” it said in a statement.

Osama Manzar, the director of the Digital Empowerment Foundation, a New Delhi-based NGO, called the government’s prickliness “a clear sign that rather than it wanting to learn how to make Aadhaar a tool of empowerment, it actually wants to use it as a coercive tool of disempowerment”.

Data leakage

Last May, the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), an independent Indian advocacy group, published a report that government websites had inadvertently leaked several million identification numbers from the project.

UIDAI sent the CIS a legal notice within days, said Srinivas Kodali, one of the authors of the report.

The notice alleged that some of the data cited in the report would only be available if the site had been accessed illegally. The UIDAI wrote that the people involved had to be “brought to justice.”

Critics have warned Aadhaar could be used as an instrument of state surveillance while data security and privacy regulations are still to be framed. Credit: PTI

According to Kodali, two more notices followed, addressed to the group’s directors and two researchers, containing more accusations. “They said it was a criminal conspiracy, and demanded that we send individual responses,” he said.

CIS then received questions about its funding from the home ministry section that grants NGOs permission to receive foreign funding, said a source in the group who saw the letter. CIS viewed this as a threat to its funding, the source said.

CIS declined to comment on the notices or on the questions about funding.

UIDAI did not reply to multiple e-mails seeking comment on the accusations about CIS and similar complaints by other activists and journalists, and officials could not be reached by phone. Officials at the Ministry of Information Technology that supervises UIDAI were unreachable by phone.

In a column in the Economic Times in January, Ajay Pandey, the head of the UIDAI, wrote: “The data of all Aadhaar holders is safe and secure. One should not believe rumours or claims made on its so-called ‘breach’.”

R.S. Sharma, the head of India’s telecom regulatory body, said there was an “orchestrated campaign” against Aadhaar as it was against the interests of those who operated in the shadow economy with fictitious names, or were skimming off subsidies.

“It is going to clean up many systems,” Sharma told a television channel last month. “That’s probably one of the reasons why people realise that this is now becoming too difficult or too dangerous for them.”

“That trip to Turkey?”

A Bangalore researcher who contributed to the CIS report said scrutiny by police and government officials was a common occurrence, but harassment was stepped up after it was published.

“Sometimes people from the police station visit you. Other times from the home ministry. It was intimidating,” the researcher said.

The person, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, said police officers asked questions like “How was that trip to Turkey?’,” to make it clear the subjects were under surveillance.

Also read: As Security Violations Erupt, Operator of India’s Biometric Database Stands at Troubling Crossroad

When Sameer Kochhar, a social scientist and author of books on Aadhaar, demonstrated how the system’s biometrics safeguards could be bypassed last year, UIDAI filed a police report in New Delhi, a person familiar with the matter said.

Subsequently, Kochhar received at least three notices from the Delhi Police alleging that he had violated 14 sections under three separate laws, the person said.

Kochhar’s lawyer declined comment. Delhi Police officials declined comment.

Critics have warned Aadhaar could be used as an instrument of state surveillance while data security and privacy regulations are still to be framed.

Former central bank governor Raghuram Rajan said last month that the government needed to prove it would protect the privacy of Aadhaar.

“I do think that we have to assure the public that their data is safe,” Rajan said. “All these reports about easy availability of data are worrying and we have to ensure security. We cannot just say trust us, trust us, it’s all secure.”

(Reuters)

Aid Groups Seek $434 Million for Rohingya Crisis for Next Six Months

There are an estimated 809,000 Rohingya sheltering in Bangladesh after fleeing violence and persecution in Myanmar.

New Rohingya refugee people look on as they hold a fence near the Kutupalang makeshift refugee camp, in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, August 29, 2017. Credit: Reuters

Rohingya refugees look on as they hold a fence near the Kutupalang makeshift refugee camp, in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, August 29, 2017. Credit: Reuters

Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh: Humanitarian organisations helping Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh said on Wednesday they need $434 million over the next six months to help up to 1.2 million people, many of them children, who need life-saving help.

There are an estimated 809,000 Rohingya sheltering in Bangladesh after fleeing violence and persecution in Myanmar, more than half a million of whom have arrived since August 25 to join 300,000 Rohingya who were already there.

“The Rohingya population in Cox’s Bazar is highly vulnerable, many having experienced severe trauma, and are now living in extremely difficult conditions,” Robert Watkins, UN resident coordinator in Bangladesh, said in a release, referring to the Bangladeshi border district where most Rohingya are living.

Bangladesh and humanitarian organisations are struggling to help the 509,000 Rohingya who have arrived since August 25, when attacks by Rohingya militants triggered a Myanmar military offensive that the UN has branded ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar rejects accusations of ethnic cleansing. It says its forces are fighting insurgents of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) who claimed responsibility for attacks on about 30 police posts and an army camp on August 25.

The insurgents were also behind similar but smaller attacks in October last year that also led to a brutal Myanmar army response triggering the flight of 87,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh.

The agencies’ plan factors in the possibility of another 91,000 refugees arriving, as the influx was continuing day to day, Watkins said.

“The plan targets 1.2 million people, including all Rohingya refugees, and 300,000 Bangladeshi host communities over the next six months,” he said.

“A rapid response from donors to this response plan is essential if the humanitarian organisations are to move ahead with critical activities to save lives, and provide protection to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh,” Watkins said.

Half a million people need food while 100,000 emergency shelters are also needed. More than half of the Rohingya population are children, while 24,000 pregnant women need maternity care, the aid agencies said in their plan.

“Massive and immediate scale-up is required to save lives,” they said. “Without immediate, adequate water, sanitation and hygiene, there will be disease outbreaks.”

Group reports massacre

The Rohingya are regarded as illegal immigrants in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and most are stateless.

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has faced scathing criticism for not doing more to stop the violence, although she has no power over the security forces under a military-drafted constitution.

She has condemned rights abuses and said Myanmar was ready to start a process agreed with Bangladesh in 1993 under which anyone verified as a refugee would be accepted back.

But many Rohingya are pessimistic about their chances of going home, partly because many do not have official papers confirming their residency.

Most are also wary about returning without an assurance of full citizenship, which they fear could leave them vulnerable to the persecution and discrimination they have endured for years.

Human Rights Watch said it had found evidence that the Myanmar military had summarily executed dozens of Rohingya in a village called Maung Nu, in the north of Rakhine state, on August 27, two days after the insurgent attacks on security posts triggered the violence.

One of the attacks was on a border police checkpoint just to the north of Maung Nu.

The rights group said it had spoken to 14 survivors and witnesses from Maung Nu and surrounding villages, who were now refugees in Bangladesh.

They described how Myanmar government soldiers entered a compound in Maung Nu where people had gathered in fear of military retaliation.

“They took several dozen Rohingya men and boys into the courtyard and then shot or stabbed them to death. Others were killed as they tried to flee,” said the rights group, which has accused Myanmar of crimes against humanity.

Spokesmen for the government, the military and police did not answer their telephones and were not available for comment. Wednesday is a holiday in Myanmar.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the rights group’s report.

The group said there were also numerous reports of serious abuses by the ARSA militants, though it had been unable to independently verify those accounts, in part because Myanmar has restricted access to the area.

(Reuters)

World Food Programme Seeks $75 Million for Rohingya Crisis

“The bottom line? This is a deplorable situation. This is as bad as it gets. We need 75 million for the next six months.”

A Rohingya refugee boy looks on as he stands in a queue to receive relief supplies given by local people in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh September 16, 2017. Credit: Reuters

Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh: The World Food Programme (WFP) appealed on Sunday for $75 million in emergency aid over the next six months to help alleviate the suffering of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar.

Since August 25, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled their homes in majority Buddhist Myanmar, overwhelming aid agencies in neighbouring Bangladesh.

“The bottom line? This is a deplorable situation. This is as bad as it gets. We need 75 million for the next six months,” David Beasley, WFP executive director, told reporters after visiting refugee camps in Bangladesh near the Myanmar border.

“I say we can end world hunger with a few billion dollars. I tell donors, if you can’t give us the money, stop the wars,” added Beasley, whose UN agency is the main humanitarian organisation battling hunger worldwide.

The UN is currently seeking $200 million from donors to help tackle the crisis among the Rohingya Muslims.

(Reuters)

Rajasthan Police Detain a Suspect in Jio Data Leak Probe

The local police official, who asked not to be named, said a man named Imran Chhimpa had been detained early Tuesday evening in connection with the investigation

Mumbai: Police in Rajasthan on Tuesday detained a man suspected of involvement in a major leak of user data from the newest telecom company Jio, a police official said.

Jio, controlled by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani and his vehicle Reliance Industries Ltd, said on Monday it was investigating whether personal data of over 100 million of its customers had been leaked to a website named “Magicapk.com”.

The company said it is working with law enforcement agencies to investigate the alleged leak, which cyber security analysts say may be the first large-scale breach of an Indian telecom firm.

The local police official, who asked not to be named, said a man named Imran Chhimpa had been detained early Tuesday evening in connection with the investigation and a team of investigators from Mumbai was expected to arrive shortly.

The proprietor of a local Internet service provider in the town of Sujangarh, Rajasthan, of which Chhimpa was a customer, confirmed Chimppa had been detained and said he had received a query from police about the individual on Tuesday morning.

(Reuters)