R S Sharma's challenge on Twitter backfires as his personal details get leaked

A question arises why the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman R S Sharma dared to give his Aadhaar card number in Twitter. In response to a challenge by a Twitter user to publish Aadhaar details online, the TRAI chief on Saturday tweeted his Aadhaar number with an open challenge to users to show him any example with “you can do any harm to me.”

That challenge of Sharma backfired badly as users revealed all his personal information on Twitter in a series of tweets using his Aadhaar number details. Sharma's challenge also led to a big debate over twitter.

Just two days to go on superannuation, the outgoing TRAI chairman R.S. Sharma asked, "What harm can you do to me if you have my Aadhaar details. Aadhar doesn’t violate privacy. My Aadhaar number is 7621 7768 2740. Now I give this challenge to you: Show me one concrete example where you can do any harm to me!

The information that got revealed was his address, date of birth, phone number, email ID, and other personal information. Sharma's PAN Number also got disclosed. But Sharma insisted, “I am waiting for people to cause any harm to me due to my Aadhaar number!”

French security researcher, Elliot Alderson tweeted, “If your phone number, address, dob, bank accounts and others personal details are easily found on the Internet you have no privacy. End of the story.”

But when Alderson tweeted, “No bank account is linked to this Aadhaar number,” Sharma replied, “Looks like you are not as good as you claim to be! All my bank accounts are linked to Aadhaar. Further, even if you know my bank account number, so what!"

But Sharma insisted “I am waiting for people to cause any harm to me due to my Aadhaar number!”

The high drama played on the Twitter, a day after Justice Srikrishna committee came out with its report on data protection where it mooted changes in Aadhaar act and proposed new safeguards to protect information of Aadhaar holders. Justice Srikrishna panel on data protection has recommended that Aadhaar Act be amended “significantly” to bolster privacy safeguards, and mooted that only public authorities discharging public functions approved by the UIDAI or entities mandated by law be given the right to request for identity authentication.

Over the last one year, there have also been reports of personal information being allegedly compromised with increasing use of biometric identifier Aadhaar in an array of services.

Currently, foreign companies and hundreds of indigenous companies and start-ups work to collect, aggregate, store and process Indian user data unhindered. They gather customer’s contact list, location, messages, media files and call information at the time of installation. When you ask, they reply such information is gathered "only to improve the user’s experience.

Srikrishna’s framework would rein in such practices. It will keep a check on whether technology giants can transfer data across the border, and will also establish whether users can access and control their own data, like with the EU’s GDPR.

“Like we keep diabetes and blood pressure in check, controls are needed for data,” Srikrishna said.