Last month hackers released stolen customer data from Ashley Madison, a Canadian company promoting adultery. Its slogan was," Life is short. Have an affair." In addition to Ashley Madison India also has another 5 sites for adult dating. Whether it is a criminal offence to hack into a company's data bank is not the point. This hack will destroy lives, lead to breakups and maybe even suicide. Three months back another dating site, called AdultFriendFinder was hacked and personal information, including sexual preferences, leaked online. We may shrug about hacking of a company's data bank, blaming it on cost saving, we cannot ignore Chinese hackers stealing personal information of US government officials, including Pentagon officials. The Peoples Liberation Army of China has a special unit, with a code number - 61398, in a building on Datong Road, in Shanghai's Pudong District, dedicated to stealing security and commercial secrets from the US. It has reached such levels that the US is thinking of imposing sanctions on Chinese hackers. Will it work? No. Because China's wealth, hence the power of the Communist Party, is based on stolen information. What has adultery and Chinese criminal behavior got to do with us in India? Everything. We, the citizens of India, are in danger of losing our basic freedoms, our privacy and our human dignity to 2 government programs. One is the Unique Identification Authority, also known as Aadhar, which provides a unique number to every individual, including children, based on photograph, prints of all 10 fingers and iris scans. This is supposed to help in targeting benefits to the deserving poor so why the middle class, which gets nothing from the government, has to go through this gestapo procedure is not explained. The second is a database of the DNA of every individual in India. Trust us, says the government. They must think we are absolute imbeciles, when one third of MPs have serious criminal charges against them and 82% are multi-millionaires, which is very dubious indeed. If the US, with Silicon Valley, cannot protect its sensitive information what hope is there for our information remaining protected? Pakistani hackers have been hacking into government servers and will continue to do so. Lashkar e Taiba fellows must be rubbing their hands in glee. The government mint in Pakistan prints fake Indian currency notes so if they have details of Aadhar they can make biometric cards matching with terrorists. Our thuggish police will beat up innocent Indians. Fortunately, deceiving politicians give rise to cunning citizens who get multiple cards for multiplying benefits. Vested interests may continue to lie about the benefits of these gestapo policies but people will always find a way. Thank God.
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