Aadhaar details of about 1.6 million residents leak in Jharkand

At a time when the Supreme Court is challenging the central government's move to make Aadhaar mandatory, Aadhaar details including personal information of over a million residents was leaked online. A report coming from the Hindustan Times says that the information was published on a website run by the Jharkhand Directorate of Social Security.

The data was accidentally released due to a technical glitch and anyone visiting the website could access the data which included names, addresses and bank accounts of 1.6 million pension beneficiaries.

According to Section 29 (4) of the Aadhaar Act, publishing Aadhar numbers of consumers is illegal, however there have been similar instances in the past. Just last month we saw Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni's Aadhaar data being compromised when a photo of his personal application form on a PC was openly posted on Twitter by CSC e-governance Services India Ltd. This led to Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) blacklisting the service provider for 10 years.

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The report by HT also says that officials of Jharkhand government already had a clue about the breach for a few days but didn't take the matter seriously.

The Unique identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had recently raised concerns about the security aspect of Aadhaar saying that the information on individuals enrolled by it is safe and secure.