IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2015 - 16

So, should we, say, if we start a system in Africa, we should coordinate
with you, so that the Africans have
different numbers than the Indian
have." "Well," Mr. Nilekani responded, "this is a question of how much
you want to centralize" [11].

Acknowledgment
This article has been adapted from
articles written by Usha Ramanathan between July 2nd and 6th,
2013 for The Statesman. The original
content can be found at: http://www.
thestatesman.net/news/3514-threatof-exclusion-and-of-surveillance.html.

Author Information
The author is an internationally recognized expert on law and poverty.
She is a research fellow at the Centre
for the Study of Developing Societies, and teaches environmental law,
labor law, and consumer law at the
Indian Law Institute, New Delhi,
India. Email: urushar@gmail.com.

References
[1] N. Nilekani, 2009, "Ideas for India's
Future", TED, http://www.ted.com/talks/
nandan_nilekani_s_ideas_for_india_s_
future?language=en

and Policy, http://planningcommission.nic.in/
reports/genrep/rep_uid_cba_paper.pdf

[2] R. Dass, 2011, "Unique Identity Project
in India: A Divine Dream or a Miscalculated
Heroism?" Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad, India, http://indiagovernance.
gov.in/files/UID.pdf.
[3] "National Citizen Database", Department of Electronics & Information Technology
(DeitY), Ministry of Communications and IT,
Government of India, http://deity.gov.in/
content/national-citizen-database
[4] N. Nilekani, April 22, 2013, "Technology to Leapfrog Development: The Aadhaar
Experience", The Eighth Annual Richard H.
Sabot Lecture, Centre for Global Development, http://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/
files/nandan-nilekani-sabot-lecture-transcripttechnology-leapfrog-development.pdf
[5] G. Krishna, 2013, "Aadhaar: Supreme
Court exposes complicity of political parties", MoneyLife http://www.moneylife.in/
article/aadhaar-supreme-court-exposescomplicity-of-political-parties/34612.html

[10] Planning Commission, 2012, "Authentication Overview", UIDAI, Government of India,
http://uidai.gov.in/auth.html
[11] N. Nilekani, K. Basu, Jim Yong Kim,
2013, "The Science of Delivering Online IDs
to a Billion People: The Aadhaar Experience",
World Bank Live, http://live.worldbank.org/
science-delivering-online-ids-billion-peopleaadhaar-experience
[12] G. Krishna, 2013, "Are Indians being
used as guinea pigs of biometric technology companies? -Part 14", http://www.
moneylife.in/article/aadhar-indians-usedas-guinea-pigs/35520.html
[13] Planning Commission, Govt. of India,
2010, "Strategy Overview: Creating a
Unique Identity Number for Every Resident
in India", Unique Identification Authority of
India, p. 13, http://uidai.gov.in/UID_PDF/
Front_Page_Articles/Documents/Strategy_
Overveiw-001.pdf
[14] UIDAI Committee on Biometrics, 2009,
"Biometrics Design Standards for UID
Appl ic a t ion s, Un iq ue Ident i f ic a t ion
Authority of India Planning Commission",
ht tp://uida i.gov.in/ U ID_ P DF/C om m ittees/Biometrics_Standards_Committee_
report.pdf
[15] U. Ramanathan, 2010, "A Unique Identity Bill", Economic and Political Weekly,
Vol. XLV, No 30, p.13, http://ielrc.org/
Content/a1003.pdf
[16] UIDAI, 2012, "References", Unique
Identification Authority of India Planning Commission, http://uidai.gov.in/
publication-and-reports.html

[6] U. Ramanathan, 2013, "Your Data, Going
on Sale Soon", The Hindu, http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/your-data-goingon-sale-soon/article4733606.ece
[7] Y. Bhavan and S. Marg, 2009, Demographic Data Standards and Verification
procedure (DDSVP) Committee Report, New
Delhi, Unique Identification Authority of India,
Unique Identification Authority of India http://
uidai.gov.in/UID_PDF/Committees/UID_
DDSVP_Committee_Report_v1.0.pdf
[8] U. Ramanathan, 2013, "UID: An inclusion project that excludes the poor", The
Alternative.In http://www.thealternative.
in/society/uid-inclusion-project-tha texcludes-the-poor/
[9] NIPFP, 2012, A cost-benefit analysis of
Aadhaar, National Institute of Public Finance

Book review (continued from page 5)
the Library of Congress archives Twitter feeds, [3] and commercial data
brokers mine publicly-available data
items to paint a disturbingly-accurate
digital portrait of us [4]. Eggers' story
reminds us that vigilance and societal
self-examination are necessary for
a moral society. Once the world has
been digitally quantified, it can be
made visible. Once it has been made
visible, it can be controlled.
Scott D. Eldridge received his
B.S.C.I.S. degree from The Ohio
State University, College of Engineering and his B.F.A. degree in

16

photojournalism from the Corcoran College of Art + Design. He
has worked as a test engineer and
project manager in aerospace and
technology companies for over 16
years, and he is currently pursuing his M.A. degree in the Communication, Culture, and Technology
program at Georgetown University.
Email: scott.d.eldridge@gmail.com.

[2] S.R. Peppet, "Unraveling privacy: The personal prospectus and the threat of a fulldisclosure future," Northwest. Univ. Sch. Law
Rev., vol. 105, no. 3, pp. 1153-1203, 2011.
[3] E. Allen, "Update on the Twitter Archive
at the Library of Congress | Library of
Congress Blog," Library of Congress Blog,
Jan. 4, 2013. [Online]. Available: http://
blogs.loc.gov/loc/2013/01/update-on-thetwitter-archive-at-the-library-of-congress/.
[Accessed: 03-May-2014].
[4] M. Hicken, "Data brokers sell lists of
rape victims, AIDS patients, privacy
group finds," CNNMoney, Dec. 19, 2013.
[Online]. Available: http://money.cnn.
com/2013/12/18/pf/data-broker-lists/
index.html. [Accessed: 03-May-2014].

References
[1] H.F. Nissenbaum, Privacy in Context:
Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of
Social Life. Stanford, CA: Stanford Law
Books, 2010.

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

∕

MARCH 2015

http://planningcommission.nic.in/ http://indiagovernance http://www.gov.in/files/UID.pdf http://uidai.gov.in/auth.html http://deity.gov.in/ http://live.worldbank.org/ http://www http://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/ http://www.moneylife.in/article/aadhar-indians-used http://www http://www.thestatesman.net/news/3514-threat http://www.moneylife.in/ http://uidai.gov.in/UID_PDF/ http://www.the http://www.hindu.com/opinion/op-ed/your-data-going http://http:// http://uidai.gov.in/UID_PDF/Committees/UID_ http://www.ielrc.org/ http://www.Alternative.In http://www.thealternative http://uidai.gov.in/ http://www.ted.com/talks/ http://http:// http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2013/01/update-on-the http://www.money.cnn

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2015