Links

Implications of registering, tracking, profiling by Usha Ramanathan: Usha Ramanathan argues that UID should be seen in the context of NATGRID that will enable security agencies to track personal information including travel, finance, immigration, etc. It infringes on privacy and creates scope for misuse. At a time when routine acts of life of the poor are criminalised, such projects can condemn large sections of the population to a life of perpetual illegality.

Not all that unique by Reetika Khera: UID has limited scope for reducing corruption, even if it works as intended; but as things stand. Development and reduction of corruption are used as a smokescreen for what is mainly a project driven by security establishment and corporate interests, argues the author.

A Unique Identity Bill by Usha Ramanathan: Elaborates Human Rights, Civil Liberty and technological criticisms advanced on the UID Project and argues that the bill introduced in the Parliament of India on UID does not address the concerns that have been raised.

Human Rights Project in the Cyberspace:

Aadhaar software locked in with

UIDAI’s not-so-‘clean’ partners and their tainted executives: Argues that one of the contractors has a long-line of ex-CIA officials, including George Tenet. Questions if surveillance information should be available to private companies, and to foreign ones at that.

Google SMS Channels: An SMS based newsletter service where subscribers can opt in to receive SMS messages and free messages can be sent by the publishers of these lists. This can be a great tool to use for those involved in monitoring of village level expenditure, etc.

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Unique facility, or recipe for trouble?: Article by Jean Dr

Government 2.0 Taskforce, Australia: A task force set up by Australian government to examining ways of making proactive disclosure of digitised information, to promote digital innovations in government, and promote online engagement.

Articles on the UID Project: A collection of articles that are largely critical of the Unique ID Project.

Open data catalogue: A spreadsheet containing links to websites around the world providing open government data.

Articles Questioning Aadhaar: A collection of articles that are critical of the Unique ID Project, as the very name of the website suggests.

“Mobile Vigeye” Complaint system by CVC India: A mobile application developed by the Central Vigilance Commissioner of India through which individuals can submit complaints to the commission. The application includes a facility for the user to record audio, video and also write notes in order to submit complaints. Sounds like an interesting application that could be put to imaginative use by citizens from whom bribes are demanded.

Government Records Branch of North Carolina: Contains detailed formats, guidelines and other information on public records and its management that is useful for RTI activists.

iGovernment Working Papers – University of Manchester: Working papers on information technology for the government, produced at the University of Manchester.

Helping Countries Combat Corruption: The Role of the World Bank: A World Bank publication outlining the measures advocated by the bank to combat corruption in bank funded projects, and in countries supported by the Bank overall.

Open Government Guide: A complete compendium of information on every state’s open records and open meetings laws in the United States. Each state’s section is arranged according to a standard outline, making it easy to compare laws in various states.

Corruption & Integrity Improvement Initiatives in Developing Countries: A book on corruption and anti-corruption initiatives by UNDP with case studies from different countries, along with a discussion of anti-corruption initiatives.

Sunshine Review: Sunshine Review is a non-profit organization dedicated to state and local government transparency in the United States. The Sunshine Review wiki collects and shares transparency information and uses a 10-point Transparency Checklist to evaluate the content of every state and more than 5,000 local government websites.

Journal of E-Government: It is “a new professional journal focusing on the application and practice of e-government in its broadest sense