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Aadhaar info available online from 3rd-party websites

Several websites have been taken down after this breach came to light.

Hyderabad: Typing “Mera Aadhaar Meri Pehchan filetype: pdf” into the Google search bar allows users to download the Aadhaar details of persons and gain access to their name, address, parents’ names, date of birth, Aadhaar number and photograph.

These details do not come directly from the government’s Aadhaar database, they have been uploaded to the internet by third-party websites, such as the website of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information and the website of the All India Football Federation Researchers, which can easily be accessed by anyone. Several websites have been taken down after this breach came to light.

Earlier this week, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), dismissed reports of the Aadhaar system being vulnerable. The reports emerged after Robert Baptiste, a French security researcher, claimed to have been able to gather the details of over 20,000 Aadhaar cards by simply performing a manual search on the internet.

Baptiste, who has previously exposed several vulnerabilities in various systems, posted on Twitter, on Friday, “It is time for you to force your partners to handle Aadhaar cards in a secure way [sic]”.

The UIDAI has previously said, “Aadhaar as an identity document by its very nature needs to be shared openly with others as and when required and asked for. Aadhaar is never to be treated as a confidential document [sic]”.

Though that may be true, Aadhaar cards contain personal information, and people’s privacy must be protected. If an unauthorised party publishes a person’s personal information online, it may be sued for civil damages by the person whose right to privacy has been violated.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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