‘Don’t share Aadhaar details’

NEWDELHI: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) advised people not to share their Aadhaar numbers publicly, after several people published them on social media to mimic a challenge thrown by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman RS Sharma.

“Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) today has advised people to refrain from publicly putting their Aadhaar numbers on internet and social media and posing challenges to others,” the authority said in a statement.

The agency said, “such activities are uncalled for and should be refrained as these are not in accordance with the law. Aadhaar is a unique identity which can be authenticated to prove one’s identity for various services, benefits and subsidies. UIDAI, in its regular media campaigns, has been consistently making people aware not to display or publish or share their Aadhaar number in public domain.”

The Aadhaar number is to be treated like “bank account number, passport number, PAN number, etc” and can be shared only as and when required for legitimate purposes, it said.

“Also, as per the Aadhaar Act, 2016 and IT (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011 and Justice Srikrishna’s proposed Data Protection Bill, personally sensitive information should not be published or shared publicly. Indiscriminate and unwanted publication of any personally sensitive information whether Aadhaar or any other, may render the concerned person vulnerable...” it added.

On Saturday, Sharma shared his Aadhaar number on Twitter, challenging anyone to show him “one concrete example where you can do any harm to me”.

After security experts and other Twitter users revealed personal details of Sharma, including his phone number, bank account number and home address, several people, in support of Sharma, tweeted their own Aadhaar numbers, throwing open the same challenge.