Google responds on distress number slip

Indian smartphone users saw helpline, distress number saved in their phone books

Google’s admission that it had in 2014 inadvertently coded the 112 distress number and the UIDAI helpline number into its setup wizard for Android devices triggered another controversy yesterday.

India’s telecom regulator had only recommended the use of 112 as an emergency number in April 2015.

After a large section of smartphone users in India saw a toll-free helpline number of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) saved in their phone books by default, Google issued a statement, saying its “internal review revealed that in 2014, the then UIDAI helpline number and the 112 distress helpline number were inadvertently coded into the SetUp wizard of the Android release given to OEMs for use in India and has remained there since”.

Privacy controversy

However, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recommended only in April 2015 that the number 112 be adopted as the single emergency number for the country.

According to Google, “since the numbers get listed on a user’s contact list, these get transferred accordingly to the contacts on any new device”. Google was yet to comment on the new development.

Meanwhile, a French security expert that goes by the name of Elliot Alderson and has been at the core of the entire Aadhaar controversy, tweeted yesterday: “I just found something interesting. I will probably do a full disclosure tomorrow”.

“I’m digging into the code of the @Google SetupWizard app and I found that”.

“As far as I can see this object is not used in the current code, so there is no implications. This is just a poor coding practice in term of security,” he further tweeted.

On Friday, both UIDAI as well as the telecom operators washed their hand of the issue.

While the telecom industry denied any role in the strange incident, UIDAI said that some vested interests were trying to create “unwarranted confusion” in the public and clarified that it had not asked any manufacturer or telecom service provider to provide any such facility.

Challenge hacked

Twitter was abuzz with the new development after a huge uproar due to TRAI chairman RS Sharma’s open Aadhaar challenge to critics and hackers. Ethical hackers exposed at least 14 personal details of the TRAI Chairman, including mobile numbers, home address, date of birth, PAN number and voter ID, last week.