Is our personal Aadhaar information in safe hands?

Is Aadhaar really safe? Should I link my bank details and my personal number to Aadhaar? These are some the questions that people keep asking despite UIDAI asserting last November that “Aadhaar data is fully safe and secure and there has been no data leak or breach at UIDAI.”

But you will be surprised to learn that there are several rackets going on that can help in getting unrestricted access to details for any of the more than 1 billion Aadhaar numbers created in India thus far. And it just takes Rs 500 paid through Paytm and 10 minutes to do that. On further investigation by a 3rd party agency it has been revealed that an “agent” of the group running the racket created a “gateway” and gives gave a login ID and password. One can enter any Aadhaar number in the portal, and instantly get all particulars that an individual may have submitted to the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India), including name, address, postal code (PIN), photo, phone number and email.

This is not it. On paying another Rs 300, the agent could also provide the ‘software’ that could facilitate the printing of Aadhaar Card after entering the Aadhaar number of any individual.

Investigations also reveal that the racket may have started around six months ago, when some anonymous groups were created on WhatsApp. These groups targeted over 3 lakhs village-level enterprise (VLE) operators hired by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (ME&IT) under the Common Service Centres Scheme (CSCS) across India, offering them access to UIDAI data.

CSCS operators, who were initially entrusted with the task of making Aadhaar cards across India, were rendered idle after the job was withdrawn from them. To make a quick buck, more than one lakh VLEs are now suspected to have gained this illegal access to UIDAI data to provide “Aadhaar services” to common people for a charge, including the printing of Aadhaar cards.

Sanjay Jindal, Additional Director – General, UIDAI Regional Centre, Chandigarh when apprised of the situation however said that all this could be confirmed only after a technical investigation was conducted by the UIDAI.

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