---
layout: default
title: "Surveillance Project"
description: "A critical analysis of the Aadhaar programme and its implications for surveillance, privacy, and citizen rights in India."
categories: [Book chapters, Publications]
date: 2018-01-01
authors: ["Sunil Abraham"]
book: "Dissent on Aadhaar: Big Data Meets Big Brother"
editors: ["Reetika Khera"]
publisher: "Orient Blackswan"
pages: "pp. 45–62"
permalink: /publications/surveillance-project/
pdf: /publications/files/surveillance-project.pdf
created: 2025-11-06
---

**Surveillance Project** is a book chapter by Sunil Abraham, published in *Dissent on Aadhaar: Big Data Meets Big Brother*, edited by Reetika Khera and published by Orient Blackswan in 2018. The chapter critically analyses the Aadhaar programme, arguing that its technological and legal architecture turns a welfare initiative into a mass surveillance project with deep implications for privacy, security, and equality.

## Contents

1. [Publication Details](#publication-details)
2. [Abstract](#abstract)
3. [Context and Background](#context-and-background)
4. [Key Themes or Arguments](#key-themes-or-arguments)
5. [Full Text](#full-text)
6. [Citation](#citation)

## Publication Details

<dl class="pub-details">
  <dt>👤 Author:</dt>
  <dd>Sunil Abraham</dd>

  <dt>📘 In Book:</dt>
  <dd><em>Dissent on Aadhaar: Big Data Meets Big Brother</em></dd>

  <dt>📚 Editor:</dt>
  <dd>Reetika Khera</dd>

  <dt>🏛️ Publisher:</dt>
  <dd>Orient Blackswan</dd>

  <dt>📅 Year:</dt>
  <dd>2018</dd>

  <dt>💻 e-Edition:</dt>
  <dd>First Published 2019</dd>

  <dt>🔢 eISBN:</dt>
  <dd>978-93-5287-627-3</dd>

  <dt>📄 Pages:</dt>
  <dd>pp. 45–62</dd>

  <dt>📘 Type:</dt>
  <dd>Book Chapter</dd>

  <dt>📄 Access:</dt>
  <dd><a class="btn" href="/publications/files/surveillance-project.pdf" download>Download PDF</a></dd>
</dl>

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## Abstract

The chapter contends that Aadhaar is a surveillance project masquerading as a development intervention. Abraham critiques the centralised database design and explains how it violates decentralisation principles fundamental to secure digital systems. He argues that biometric identifiers are irrevocable, consent mechanisms are weak, and the system exposes citizens to irreversible privacy risks. The chapter concludes that flawed technological architectures cannot be repaired through legal or procedural fixes.

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## Context and Background

The chapter situates Aadhaar within the global history of identity systems and state surveillance. Drawing from early research on the Unique Identification project, Abraham describes how Aadhaar’s centralised database model creates new vulnerabilities for both citizens and the state. He contrasts this with the internet’s distributed design, showing how Aadhaar reverses the logic of transparency—making citizens visible to the state while rendering the state opaque.

## Key Themes or Arguments

- Centralisation as vulnerability: Aadhaar’s CIDR introduces a single point of failure in national identity management.  
- Biometrics as irrevocable identifiers: fingerprints and iris data, once compromised, cannot be replaced.  
- Consent illusion: Aadhaar transactions often occur without conscious or verifiable consent.  
- Surveillance inequality: the poor are subjected to greater scrutiny than the powerful.  
- Critique of technological solutionism: legal and technical patches cannot fix bad architecture.  
- Alternative models: decentralised identity, digital signatures, and privacy-respecting authentication mechanisms.

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## Full Text
<div class="pdf-container">
  <iframe
    src="https://docs.google.com/gview?url=https://sunilabraham.in/publications/files/surveillance-project.pdf&embedded=true"
    frameborder="0"
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    title="Embedded PDF Viewer"
    loading="lazy"
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  <p class="pdf-download">
    <a class="btn" href="/publications/files/surveillance-project.pdf" download>
      📄 Download Full Chapter (PDF)
    </a>
  </p>
</div>

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## Citation

If you wish to reference or cite this chapter, please use one of the following formats:

**APA style:**

```
Abraham, S. (2018).
Surveillance Project.
In R. Khera (Ed.), Dissent on Aadhaar: Big Data Meets Big Brother (pp. 45–62).
Orient Blackswan. eISBN 978-93-5287-627-3. e-edition: First Published 2019.
https://sunilabraham.in/publications/surveillance-project/
```

**BibTeX style**
```
@incollection{abraham2018surveillance,
  author = {Abraham, Sunil},
  title = {Surveillance Project},
  booktitle = {Dissent on Aadhaar: Big Data Meets Big Brother},
  editor = {Khera, Reetika},
  publisher = {Orient Blackswan},
  year = {2018},
  pages = {45--62},
  eedition = {First Published 2019},
  eISBN = {978-93-5287-627-3},
  url = {https://sunilabraham.in/publications/surveillance-project/}
}
```

**MLA style**
```
Abraham, Sunil. "Surveillance Project."
Dissent on Aadhaar: Big Data Meets Big Brother, edited by Reetika Khera,
Orient Blackswan, 2018, pp. 45–62. e-edition: First Published 2019,
eISBN 978-93-5287-627-3.
https://sunilabraham.in/publications/surveillance-project/
```

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