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Modi govt finally admits Aadhaar details have been leaked!

A letter written by a scientist from the Ministry of Electronics and IT admitted to the data breach.

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In a first, the Centre has admitted that the Aadhaar Card and bank accounts linked to them, has been leaked. For the first time, the Centre has acknowledged that personal identity, including your Aadhaar number and other info could be leaked to the public domain, reports The New Indian ExpressA letter written by the Archana Dureja, a scientist in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, says: “There have been instances wherein personal identity or information of residents, including Aadhaar number and demographic information and other sensitive personal data such as bank account details etc. collected by various Ministries/Departments... has been reportedly published online and is accessible through an easy online search.”

The letter was written March 25 and she also said that the leak of data was a serious and punishable offence. The letter further said: “Publishing information like Aadhaar number along with name, date of birth, address etc. is a clear contravention of provisions of the Aadhaar Act, 2016 and is punishable with imprisonment of up to three years. The offending parties are liable to pay damages in the form of compensation to persons affected.”

However, the Ministry of Electronics and IT issued a statement on March 5, which assured people that data held by UIADI was "fully safe and secure".

On Wednesday, former finance minister P Chidamabaram and current FM Arun Jaitley clashed over the Aadhaar’s lack of privacy in parliament. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley strongly defended the government's endeavour to make Aadhaar compulsory for access to various benefits, saying it was necessary to check frauds, including tax evasion.

While talking about Aadhaar, he admitted that it was a "great initiative" of the previous UPA government and said the NDA dispensation is expanding it. "Earlier, some of us had doubts over Aadhaar...Some of your people (in Congress) also had doubts. Later, a presentation was made to the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) where the doubts were cleared," Jaitley said.

Responding to repeated questions by the Congress members as to why Aadhaar was being made mandatory, he countered by asking why this technology should not be utilised since it was created for public benefit  Congress leader P Chidamabaram asked whether the government could give guarantee that the Aadhaar details would not be leaked through hacking.

To this, the Finance Minister said while hacking could not be ruled out, the firewalls should be made stronger. "If the firewalls can be broken and hacking can take place, the hacking can take place anywhere," he said, adding "Hacking does not take place because of Aadhaar" and referred to such an incident that took place at the Pentagon in the US. When asked about the leakage of Aadhaar details of cricketer MS Dhoni, Jaitley said it was the result of an "immature" act by somebody in Ranchi against whom action has been taken.

 

 

 

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