TRAI Chairman RS Sharma's Aadhaar Challenge Is a Case of 'Misplaced Enthusiasm'

Beware! Your Aadhaar Data is Just a Google Search Away From Being Accessed by Anyone

Telecom Regulatory Potency of Bharat (TRAI) Chairman RS Sharma'south open Aadhaar claiming to critics and hackers is nothing simply a case of "misplaced enthusiasm" which dilutes the debate on securing the Aadhaar eco-arrangement, emphasise cyber law experts.

Sharma, who made his 12-digit Aadhaar number open on July 28 and created a tweetstorm — not as a regime servant but "as a normal citizen of India" — can set a unsafe precedent for millions of Indians who are still non aware what privacy is all about.

"Throwing such a challenge merely shows misplaced enthusiasm. He is treading a unsafe path which can exist detrimental in days to come up as his personal and bank details are at present out in the open," Pavan Duggal, one of the leading cyber law experts in the country, told IANS.

What the TRAI Chairman has perhaps forgotten is that the key data repository at the Unique Identification Dominance of India (UIDAI) may be secure, but several tertiary-party vendors are now increasingly accepting Aadhaar as a key certificate — and that opens it upward for misuse, especially given the weak cyber security laws in the country.

"Several FIRs accept been lodged against Aadhaar misuse across the country. People'due south confidence in Aadhaar is slowly being eroded and, at this juncture, rather than working extensively on securing Aadhaar, nosotros meet a top government official posting his Aadhaar number on Twitter," Duggal lamented.

Ethical hackers have exposed at least fourteen personal details of the TRAI chairman since he revealed his Aadhaar number — including mobile numbers, home address, date of nascency (DoB), PAN number and voter ID, amongst others.

Ethical hackers can't get beyond this every bit creating financial break-ins volition land them in legal trouble.

"Past the way, were you able to cause whatever harm to me, because now you know my Aadhaar number?" Sharma tweeted to a French security skillful, who goes past the nickname Elliot Alderson and uses the twitter handle @fs0c131y, as his personal details began flying all over Twitter.

With simply an #Aadhaar number, you tin easily get the associated phone number. Information technology's working for all #Indians, public servant or not. Think nearly information technology my @UIDAI friend. https://t.co/0D8inYIEPy

— Baptiste Robert (@fs0c131y) July 29, 2018

Alderson replied: "If your telephone numbers, address, DoB, bank accounts and others personal details are hands establish on the Cyberspace you have no #privacy. Cease of the story."

According to Duggal, personal privacy alienation begins with the phone number and it is a tragedy that most Indians – unlike Europeans or Americans – are nonetheless not aware what exactly constitutes privacy.

"Your phone number (becoming public knowledge) is the outset hint that your private space has been breached. Would you lot wait for hackers to clean up your bank accounts?" asked Duggal.

https://twitter.com/nileshtrivedi/condition/1023196004911263744

Every bit part of the European Matrimony'southward General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that came into force from May 25, Eu citizens may, at any point, object to an organization's handling of their personal data.

The regulation specifically names "direct marketing and profiling" equally personal data uses to which individuals may object to.

The Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee on information protection in Republic of india has too suggested amendments to the Aadhaar Act to provide for imposition of penalties on data fiduciaries and compensations to data principals for violations of the data protection law.

The 213-page written report suggests amendments to the Aadhaar Act from a data protection perspective.

Jared Cohen, a former United states State Section official and an expert on social media and cyber-crime issues, has besides stressed there are serious concerns about the collection of biometric information for Aadhaar cards in India and these must be allayed.

"I don't desire to meddle in Republic of india's politics. Just there are concerns (almost drove of personal details for Aadhaar card)," Cohen told an IANS correspondent on the sidelines of the third almanac BCTECH Elevation at Vancouver, Canada, in May.

Cohen, currently the CEO and Founder of Jigsaw, a Google arm started to tackle threats to online security, conceded in that location are arguments on the claim of the Aadhaar system but there are besides concerns that must be addressed.

According to Duggal, "Not only corrective changes, there is an urgent need for addressing newly-emerging legal and cyber-security challenges concerning the Aadhaar ecosystem on an urgent basis."

"There is a need for a more comprehensive legal framework to protect and preserve data and the privacy of individual Aadhaar account holders in detail, and the Aadhaar ecosystem stakeholders in general," he noted.