14 March 2018

Indian Biometrics and the Privatisation of Government Data Collection


New Delhi insists biometric data is fully safe and secure. Why should the people trust this is the case? If hackers were able to break into the UID system with such ease or an insider was able to sell the data undetected, either way it has been made clear the government has no real operational system control let alone security.


It is hardly shocking the Modi administration wants to link the government database with the private financial and service sector, thus subjecting personal date to financial exploitation... and ultimately a pervasive totalitarian control mechanism.
It's no secret the private sector does a better job at data collection and analysis than the government and thus the government both in nations like India and the West continue to work toward appropriating the tools of the private sector. Recently Google acknowledged that it had provided data to the US government which was utilised in its drone programme. From banking to social media, medical records to phone data and home audio-video feeds the government (via private sector proxies) is gathering every bit of data it get it hands on.
And they're working on the processors and algorithms to turn this data into a usable commodity.
I contend India is a test case. A large country with over a billion people, India cannot realistically control or even monitor the whole of its society. Large regions of the country are beyond the control of the central government. But that's not the point.
The chaos in the case is ideal for experimentation. Indian society is too fragmented to challenge the central government. India of course is not analogous to the West but it is growing more Western by the day and its business and technology sectors are connected to the West and its industries. Much can be learned and you can be sure Western analysts and intellectuals are taking notes.

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