Aadhaar data fully safe and secure; no data leak or breach: UIDAI

Key Highlights:

• Reports said, "210 government sites made Aadhaar info public"
• UIDAI denied any breach or leakage of Aadhaar data
• Aadhaar enrollment has reached over 1 billion in the country

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Monday spoke about authentication of Aadhaar data saying it is fully safe and secure.

UIDAI reiterated that Aadhaar security systems are the best of the international standards and Aadhaar data is fully secure. There has been no breach or leakage of Aadhaar data at UIDAI, it added.

The announcement came in the wake of media reports, on November 19, saying that "210 central and state government websites publicly displayed details such as names and addresses of some Aadhaar beneficiaries."

UIDAI said, "Such report is a skewed presentation of the facts and poses as if the Aadhaar data is breached or leaked which is not the true presentation."

UIDAI explained that these websites was placed in public domain as a measure of proactive disclosure under RTI Act by these government and institutional websites which included beneficiaries’ name, address, bank account, and other details including Aadhaar number and was collected from the third party/users for various welfare schemes.

The UIDAI and Ministry of Electronics & IT have already directed the concerned government departments/ministries to immediately remove such information from their websites and ensure that such violation do not occur in future.

Ensuring on the Aadhaar numbers, which were made public on the said websites, UIDAI said that such information do not pose any real threat to the people as biometric information is never shared, adding "Mere display of demographic information cannot be misused without biometrics."

The Aadhaar card scheme, which has enrolled more than 1 billion people, has helped the exchequer save about $9 billion by eliminating fraud in beneficiary lists.