Digital India

Digital India is a Government of India campaign that claims to facilitate the delivery of Government services to citizens online or through other tech approaches. However, the project has been haphazard at best, plagued with security issues, data leaks and a less than responsible approach by the government toward securing the interests of citizens. The only people who are benefited from Digital India projects are big data players, digital banking organizations and those who create applications for the first two. Citizens are denied the right to privacy, government services and even food for the poorest citizens, if they don’t comply with the ambitious projects.

Additionally, many government initiatives, notably the Aadhaar and the demonetisation have resulted in considerable deprivation of citizens, for which there is no accountability. This has resulted in an ongoing and growing dissent by citizens of the country who are technologically literate. However, lacking adequate legal provisions to engage with the system and a government that ignores any information that could hinder their relentless rollout of “modernization”, there are few ways other than protest and in some instances, public interest litigation available to digital activists.

aadhaar biometric surveillance

Fundamental conceptual concerns regarding the Aadhaar number as a unique identity based upon biometric digital data and the associated risks for citizens of India

Under the Aadhaar system, all Indian citizens are being allotted a unique twelve-digit identity number by the State upon obtaining biometric data including fingerprint and iris scans and upon submission

Fundamental conceptual concerns regarding the Aadhaar number as a unique identity based upon biometric digital data and the associated risks for citizens of India Read More »