
Indian Aadhaar biometric IDs 'not mandatory for tax returns yet' - happy-go-lucky
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-40213566
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throwaway66599
Not true. The Machiavellian Finance Minister has taken out spots in newspapers
saying they are not mandatory for PAN cards - the cards which previously
would've become invalid won't be anymore. They remain mandatory for filing
returns; instead of linking the PAN card, you now have to mention the number
while filing. The loophole continues to be molested.

Nothing new here. The supreme court has kept parroting the line ~5-6 times.
They have neither the will nor the integrity to keep the executive to its
word.

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awinter-py
I think the laconic reply to this is: 'yet'

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darkhorn
The best way for the USA to fight terrorism and crime in the USA is to have
biometric IDs with unique USA citizenship ID number. Also everybody must
inform its home address to the state.

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mythrwy
That's a good start. Also need a DNA sample from everyone and constant record
of movements/conversations. Maybe full 24-7 video feed also if storage gets
cheap enough. Constantly uploading biofeedback data maybe also? The government
should ideally know when anyone gets excited or angry to prevent possible
problems. That way we can finally stop terrorism for good!</s>

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burntrelish1273
National IDs run by governments are problematic for a variety of reasons. It
would make more sense for one or more global nonprofit(s) with significant
privacy, InfoSec and document security talent to offer an opt-in, open-source,
voluntary "card" which can be deployed, maintained and improved to verify,
nonrepudiate and generate a physical/electronic card for a given individual.
This way, corporate interests and govt waste/incompetence can be mostly
mitigated. Also useful would be the ability to grant/revoke rights to personal
information in a single place and to load authoritative information onto a
"card" (nationality, status, health records, etc.), perhaps backed by
blockchain technology. Card being a physical token into an API that a consumer
must have authorization and authentication to access.

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romaster
The biggest problem is the centralizing of biometric data.

That's not only slower but a treasure trove once it is hacked.

An Opt-in as you're suggesting would be a positive move - even more so would
be a decentralized biometric tokenization approach.

Device side biometrics that don't leave the user's device.

