[Reader-list] Government "survey: computer user identification tags

[Nilanjana Roy]

Just checking with the list to see whether anyone else has received a similar call. Was called a few days ago by a young girl called Purva who identified herself as 'Shruti' and said she was conducting a survey as part of a "very forward-looking" project in the "national interest".

She wanted to know: how many computer users there were in the house, their names, professions and approximate income levels, how many computers we owned, whether we would be excited by a government scheme to issue all computer users a specific alphanumeric identifier that they would use in their e-governance dealings.

Since I subscribe firmly to the belief that only the paranoid survive, I asked her how she'd got my number: she said she didn't know, but they had a list. I asked whether the government planned to issue an identification number to all computer users, or to all computer owners (big difference!); she had no idea. I declined firmly to answer all questions, told her that I was strongly opposed to the identifier scheme and hung up. Asked around, but only two other people I know of in Delhi have received similar calls--does anyone on the list have any idea what's going on?

Incidentally, I'm not at all excited about the identification scheme on several counts: I don't trust current governmental levels of security (think of the number of times VSNL accounts have been hacked), I think it's an invasion of privacy, and going by my experiences with PAN numbers (arrived two years after applied for, in the wrong name), Voter's ID cards (my long-deceased grandmother has one, apparently, and voted at the last elections using it!) and driving licence queues, it won't add to efficiency at all. What I want to know, though, is whether such a scheme is actually on the cards--or whether this was just a general survey by NASSCOM or some such.

Any information would be more than welcome!



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