Eminent economist and former member of the National Advisory Council during the UPA regime Jean Dreze has said that Aadhaar information leak on a Jharkhand government’s website a few days ago was no temporary glitch, but the result of prolonged negligence on the part of the authorities concerned.
“It was a blatant case of negligence, not a temporary glitch,” said the economist while speaking to media persons at Xavier Institute Social Sciences Auditorium, rebutting the State Government’s stand that the Aadhar data can’t be leaked. He claimed that he had the copy of all the leaked data with him.
“It is highly disappointing that the Social Welfare Secretary has said that the people who raised the issue through Twitter were wrong. He is telling a sheer lie on this issue as we have a proof of it in the form of print-out of leaked data of 477 pensioners of 17 villages under Murhi panchayat in Khunti which was available on the website of Social Welfare Department at time,” said Dreze.
“Since the people whose data has been leaked do not have any right to complaint against the leakage of their personal data, UIDAI should come forward and take action against those who were responsible for it,” he added.
Aadhaar numbers of more than 15 lakh pension beneficiaries were being illegally displayed on the State Government’s website till April 22 in violation of the Aadhaar Act.
The data was said to be accidentally released due to a technical glitch and anyone visiting the website could access the data which included names, addresses, bank accounts as well as Aadhaar numbers of more than 15 lakh beneficiaries of social security pension in the State.
“It is a case of negligence which is also against the law as public display of Aadhaar is illegal as per the provisions of the Act,” Dreze said. The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, prohibits publishing, display or posting publicly of a person’s Aadhaar details with the exception of certain regulations, he added.
Dreze further said that though similar instances have also been reported in Chandigarh, Kerala, Mizoram and Karnataka but the leakage in Jharkhand was worst as it involved huge number of people, data was displayed for a longer period of time and it also leaked their bank account numbers.
“It is quite dangerous as copying ones finger print is not very difficult these days which was witnessed in Mumbai where a group of students of a reputed Institute made fake biometrics and asked their friends to make their attendance on their behalf,” said the Economist. Hence, confidentiality of Aadhaar number becomes so important, he added.
“Personal ID, name of the pensioner and the name of his or her father or husband should be displayed on the screen in normal circumstances, but account numbers and Aadhaar numbers were also being displayed before the site was blocked on April 22,” he said.
Dreze stressed that it was not a leak but it was an illegal display of the Aadhaar data of several lakhs of people hence action must be taken against those who were responsible for it. He said that he also had the video recording of how the print out of the leaked data was done before disclosing it before the National media on April 22. Immediately after that the site was blocked on the same day, he said.
“It’s nobody’s job or responsibility here to monitor such leakages and from where these data were leaked,” he said. Such a leakage could not be done at the level of operators, it could only be done at secretary level and hence action should be taken accordingly, he added.
These breaches came at a time when the Supreme Court is hearing a set of petitions challenging a controversial government decision to make it mandatory for citizens to seed Permanent Account Numbers with Aadhaar numbers for filing income tax returns.
Incidentally, the leakage came into light when Dheeraj Kumar, associated with Right to Food campaign in Khunti, was taking out the list of social security pensioners on the site of Social Welfare Department while doing a survey in the area. After taking out the print out of 477 beneficiaries, he shared it with Jean Dreze who pointed out that the display of bank accounts and Aadhaar number was illegal.
“I downloaded the data on April 21 and shared it with Dreze on April 22 following which he shared the leakage with the national media through Twitter following which the site was blocked for quite some time,” said Kumar. Although it got revealed on April 22, but it must be there on the site for quite some time, he added.