After repeated claims of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), that the Aadhaar data cannot be breached, a new data leak has come forth in which almost 1.34 lakh Aadhaar card holders’ sensitive data was leaked from the Andhra Pradesh State Housing Corporation website.
The data which was leaked contained sensitive details such as Aadhaar number, bank branch, IFSC code, account number, father’s name, address, Panchayat, mobile number, ration card number, occupation, religion, and caste, on a live website. The leak was brought forth by Kodali Srinivas, the Hyderabad-based cybersecurity researcher, who told NDTV, “The UIDAI has informed the Supreme Court that Aadhaar can never be used for surveillance or to track religious and caste information. But the fact is the Andhra Pradesh government has used Aadhaar to build profiles of their beneficiaries. All of this information is in public domain and it could be misused by political parties for voter profiling.”
In the meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh government is still adamant and has said that the state government is adhering to the rules and regulations of the Aadhaar Act 2016 and the orders from the Hon’ble Courts in the context of data privacy. “We are investigating this report and once we understand the full situation we will update you,” the government official told NDTV.