Supreme court has extended the timeline to update Aadhaar details indefinitely. The new order from SC says that “The government cannot insist for mandatory Aadhaar even for the issuance of Tatkal passport.”
Ignore any messages from your telecom operators to link Aadhaar with your mobile number. Similarly, also ignore messages and calls from e-wallet services and banks, regarding the linking of Aadhar.
The interim order from SC also says that Aadhaar is still mandatory to receive govt subsidies. However, this will depend on the five-judge bench which will consider the different petitions, that challenges the constitutional validity of Aadhar.
What is [...]The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has responded to reports that someone sold over 1 billion Aadhar card details for just Rs. 500. In a statement, the organisation has claimed that all data is safe. In response, UIDAI has also filed an FIR for unauthorised access to Aadhaar data, such as names and other demographic details, due to the misuse of the grievance redressal facility at the office of the Surat district administration in Gujarat.
UIDAI denied that the breach allowed access to millions of Aadhaar cardholders’ details, saying the search facility is available for the purpose of grievance redressal to designated personnel and state government [...]
Aadhar, the unique identification number allotted and maintained by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was started in 2009 and is the largest database of privacy information including biometrics that include fingerprints, and iris scans of billions of Indians. The database also includes pictures, addresses and private information of all the individuals registered on the database.
It is estimated that over 1.2 Billion people have already resisted for the Aadhar number, however, it has not been without problems. Initially there was political push back for the Unique ID system which was intended to allow Indian residents easy access to social programs for [...]
Back in 2014, Facebook bought one of the most famous instant messaging apps in the world, WhatsApp. Over the course of three years, there have been many Facebook features which have trickled down to WhatsApp as well, WhatsApp Status being one of them. Being the parent company, Facebook started using the user data from WhatsApp to develop targeted advertising, security measures, and to gather business intelligence.
To tackle the free-sharing of personal user data among the two firms, France’s ultra-strict privacy watchdog CNIL has ordered WhatsApp to stop sharing user data with parent company Facebook. WhatsApp has a month to comply with the order, according to a public notice [...]
Goa chief minister Mr Manohar Parrikar launched the country’s first ever mobile food testing laboratory. The vehicle, worth Rs 41 lakh was unveiled in Goa in the presence of the Goa Food and Drugs Administration minister Vishwajit Rane. Mr Parrikar said:
It is entirely funded by the Centre, which will also bear the maintenance cost for five years.
The laboratory, mounted on a bus will travel across the state and check food samples on the spot. Mr Parrikar said this would be the first ever ‘Food Safety on Wheel’ vehicle in the country. The laboratory will help in the on-the-spot testing of food items and curb adulteration. He continued:
Besides this, it will [...]
The Indian government has continued its effort in curbing the danger that some apps on the internet might possess. The Indian intelligence agencies have listed about 42 mobile applications that have the potential to carry out a cyber-attack against the country. The agencies have reportedly issued a warning to the Indian Army and paramilitary against their usage.
As per reliable inputs, a number of Android/IOS apps developed by Chinese developers or having Chinese links are reportedly either spyware or other malicious ware. Use of these apps by our force personnel can be detrimental to data security having implications on the force and national security.
Army personnel [...]
Unmanned Aerial Systems, or commonly known as Drones, have been around for a long time now. A lot of countries have tight regulations around the usage of drones but, getting access to drones and permissions to use it are easily available in such countries. In India, selling and purchasing drones is restricted.
Although it is used by the Army, getting permissions if you are a civilian are cumbersome and if you get permissions, it comes with a set of rigid regulations. However, it appears that the Indian government has identified the advantages of drone usage if conducted with fair and safe regulations. The Civil Aviation Minister P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju presented the first [...]
India is planning to roll out 5G internet services by the year 2020. In order to complete this task successfully, the government has set up a high-level forum which will evaluate all possible roadmaps to make sure that 5G internet becomes prominent in the country. For the said objective, the ministries of telecom, information and technology, and science and technology have been included in the forum. A budget of Rs 500 crore is set aside for research and development of 5G technology by the government.
The minister of State for Communications Manoj Sinha said:
We missed the opportunity to participate when the standards were being set for 3G and 4G, but don’t want to miss [...]
Apple and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) are fighting over the user data that iPhone users in India have on their phone. TRAI argues that no smartphone company should be a guardian of the user data of its smartphones and should share it with apps that require that data to function. Apple has indicated that it believed the TRAI app is a potential risk to its user’s privacy.
TRAI has an anti-spamming app which blocks the numbers reported by the users and then launches a strict action against the number. The app is readily available to Android users, albeit poor customer reviews. TRAI Chairman R S Sharma publically slammed Apple a few weeks ago and has now [...]
The Electronics and IT Ministry, last week had sent notices to 21 smartphone companies, with a majority of them Headquartered in China, asking them to outline the procedures and processes adopted by them to ensure security and privacy of users data. Soon after, nine more companies, including Motorola, Honor, Asus, OnePlus, InFocus, were added to that list.
The latest update states that a total of twelve companies including HTC, Xiaomi,Vivo, Huawei and Lenovo, have responded to the notice, while others like Samsung, Oppo, Sony, etc. have acknowledged and requested an extension. The ministry official said that agreeing to the requests, the government is likely to extend the [...]
One of the most popular mobile web browsers in India, UC Browser is under the scanner for reportedly sending data from Indian users out of the country. According to a report by Business Standard, “a government lab in Hyderabad is probing how UC Browser can send user details and location data to a remote server.”
This aforementioned lab is the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), an R&D organisation for the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. If found guilty, the Alibaba-owned app could be banned. Further, the report said that the government plans on sending [...]
Amidst the multiple reports of online thefts and data leakage, the Ministry of Electronics and IT has taken steps to ensure privacy and safety of user data. The Ministry sent our notices to 21 smartphone makers to provide the framework as well as the procedures they follow for data security.
Aside from the global providers like Apple and Samsung and Indian firms like Micromax, majority of the listed 21 Smartphone companies included Chinese makers such as Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and Lenovo.
All 21 smartphone companies are to provide detailed information about security practices, architecture, process, guidelines and standards followed for providing secure transmission and [...]
