The Union Water and Sanitation Ministry was found to have uploaded Aadhaar numbers of beneficiaries of the Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin on its website — the first instance of an Aadhaar data breach by a central government ministry. Till Monday evening, the official Swachh Bharat Mission website displayed blockwise data of beneficiaries across all states along with their Aadhaar numbers. Late at night, after news of the breach spread, the details were no more visible on the website. The website is maintained by the Water and Sanitation Ministry, the nodal ministry for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cleanliness mission. Officials of the ministry were not available for comment. As per the Unique Identification Authority of India notification of September 2016, “The Aadhaar number of an individual shall not be published, displayed or posted publicly by any person or entity or agency.” It puts the onus of ensuring security and confidentiality of the Aadhaar numbers on the agency that is in possession of the numbers. It also states that any database containing Aadhaar numbers of individuals cannot be made public unless “the Aadhaar numbers have been redacted or blacked out by appropriate means, both in print and electronic form.” The Aadhaar Act of 2016 makes such disclosure punishable by a three-year term and fine. A similar breach was noticed in Chandigarh, with the Union Territory administration displaying Aaadhar numbers of PDS beneficiaries on the ePDS website maintained by National Informatics Centre. Within minutes of The Indian Express contacting UT Adviser Parimal Rai, Deputy Commissioner Ajit Balaji Joshi and Home Secretary Anurag Aggarwal, the administration blocked the Ration Card Dynamic Report option on the website that was giving out these details. Activists have repeatedly raised concerns about linking Aadhaar details — which include address, biometric information and retina scan of individuals —— with bank accounts, PAN numbers and similar sensitive data on the ground that such leaks could compromise the privacy and security of millions of people. With inputs from Chandigarh
