Winter Session 2021: A Digital Rights Review
The Winter session saw frequent disruptions. However, with the JPC reports being tabled, the Parliament proved to be crucial for digital rights.
aadhaar
IFF submits its comments on the Draft Aadhaar (Pricing of Aadhaar Authentication Services) Regulations
We have provided our comments on the Draft Aadhaar (Pricing of Aadhaar Authentication Services) Regulations 2021. In our comments, we recommended that Aadhaar authentication charges be scrapped and private entities be barred from acting as ‘requesting entities’ for authentication.
Government endorses the use of facial recognition for “touchless” vaccination process
We filed an RTI application with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to verify reports about the government using facial recognition technology (FRT) for the verification of beneficiaries of the COVID-19 vaccines. In their response the Ministry confirmed the use of FRT.
Bad Rules for Good Governance
We explain why the Aadhaar Good Governances Rules are unconstitutional as they exceed the limits of the Aadhaar Act, violate the Puttaswamy judgement and proportionality test, and are vague and non-voluntary. We have petitioned the Committees on Subordinate Legislation to review the Rules.
Comments on the Draft Social Security Rules to safeguard worker's rights #SaveOurPrivacy
The Ministry of Labour released the Draft Code on Social Security (Central) Rules, 2020. In our comments on the draft, we have highlighted the following issues: mandatory aadhaar based verification and inadequate security safeguards for employee databases.