Over 200 govt. websites made Aadhaar details public, says UIDAI

While, 'Whether Aadhaar infringes upon individual's right to privacy?' is still being debated both legally and otherwise, Unique Identification Authority of India, UIDAI has reported that over 200 central and state government websites publicly displayed details such as names and addresses of some Aadhaar beneficiaries.

In response to an RTI query, the Aadhaar issuing body, without specifying when the breach took place merely said that it took note of the breach and got the data removed from those websites.

It also added that Aadhaar details have never been made public from/by UIDAI. "However, it was found that approximately 210 websites of central government, state government departments including educational institutes were displaying the list of beneficiaries along with their name, address, other details and Aadhaar numbers for information of general public," it said.

The news about the public display of Aadhaar details comes when the central government is in the process of making Aadhaar mandatory for people to avail benefits of various social service schemes. "UIDAI has a well-designed, multi-layer approach robust security system in place and the same is being constantly upgraded to maintain highest level of data security and integrity," the RTI reply said.

It said security audits are conducted on a regular basis to further strengthen security and privacy of data. Besides this, all possible steps are taken to make the data safer and protected, the authority said.