[The three leaks and the "admission" have been laid out in some details in
this article.

《It also seems that fears of Aadhaar data being stored without adequate
security are increasingly coming true. The past two years have seen
multiple leaks while reports show that it is also fairly easy to buy
Aadhaar data. In fact, just this past week, there were reports of three
instances of Aadhaar data being leaked and one admission by the government
that it misled the Indian public about linking Aadhaar numbers with mobile
phone numbers.》]

https://scroll.in/article/877949/this-week-saw-3-aadhaar-leaks-and-an-admission-from-the-government-that-it-lied-about-mobile-linking

This week saw 3 Aadhaar leaks and an admission from the government that it
lied about mobile linking
The data breaches affected new mothers, pensioners and formal sector
workers.
This week saw 3 Aadhaar leaks and an admission from the government that it
lied about mobile linking

6 hours ago

Shoaib Daniyal

Aadhaar, India’s 12-digit biometric identification number scheme, has been
dogged by controversy ever since the government set up the Unique
Identification Authority of India to oversee its rollout and implementation
in 2009. Activists and politicians have raised concerns about the security
and privacy of the Aadhaar process as well as the fact that government
agencies are pushing to make the number mandatory for citizens to avail of
social welfare benefits and for services such as filing income tax returns.

It also seems that fears of Aadhaar data being stored without adequate
security are increasingly coming true. The past two years have seen
multiple leaks while reports show that it is also fairly easy to buy
Aadhaar data. In fact, just this past week, there were reports of three
instances of Aadhaar data being leaked and one admission by the government
that it misled the Indian public about linking Aadhaar numbers with mobile
phone numbers.

Andhra Pradesh leaks 20 lakh Aadhaar numbers
On April 30, independent researcher Srinivas Kodali reported that the
Andhra Pradesh government had published the Aadhaar numbers of 20,71,913
pregnant women and new mothers in the 2015-2018 period.

Andhra Pradesh has been publishing around 20,71,913 #Aadhaar numbers of
pregnant women and recent mothers during the period of from 2015-2018.
While govt has legitimate interest in collecting this data for helping
track mortality rates. The linking with Aadhaar and sharing is bad
pic.twitter.com/juNFaLbr1x

— Srinivas Kodali | శ్రీనివాస్ కొడాలి (@digitaldutta) April 30, 2018
In response, the Andhra Pradesh government has started an investigation
with the Andhra Pradesh Cyber Security Operations Centre auditing and
inspecting several government websites.

Provident fund data stolen from Aadhaar seeding portal
On Wednesday, the Business Standard reported that an Aadhaar-seeding portal
of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation had been hacked into and
confidential data stolen. The portal – which helped subscribers link their
provident fund accounts with their Aadhaar numbers – had consequently been
shut down over a month and a half ago.

Telangana pensioners’ data leaked
Then on Thursday, The New Indian Express reported that the personal data of
over 2.5 lakh pensioners in Telangana, including their bank account and
Aadhaar numbers, had been put up on the state treasuries department
website, completely accessible to the public. This data was taken down only
on Tuesday.

The theft of Aadhaar numbers of elderly pensioners has had grave
consequences in the past. In October, the Aadhaar details of around 300
Hyderabadis were stolen along with Rs 40 lakh of their pensions.

No SIM-Aadhaar linking required after all
Also on Wednesday, the government clarified in the Times of India that
there was, in fact, no need to link mobile phone SIMs with Aadhaar and that
new SIMs could be issued to even those people who did not have an Aadhaar
number. It said driving licences, passports and voter identity cards were
sufficient to establish proof of identity.

On April 25, the Supreme Court had criticised the government for making
SIM-Aadhaar linking mandatory by falsely arguing that the apex court had
directed it. “In fact there was no such direction from the Supreme Court,
but you took it and used it as tool to make Aadhaar mandatory for mobile
users,” said Justice DY Chandrachud, one of the judges on the bench hearing
the case of the constitutionality of Aadhaar.
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