Stranger got personal info but not Aadhaar details of me, wife, children: UIDAI counsel

UIDAI's counsel, Rakesh Dwivedi's recent statements state that a large amount of sensitive, personal data was being collected by foreign companies but they were not able to breach the Aadhaar database. 

Dwivedi, on April 17, had thrown an open challenge to the petitioners to hack his personal data via the Aadhaar database. He also communicated that the data stored in the Aadhaar database was absolutely secure and cannot be manipulated using the internet. 

The senior counsel, on Wednesday, informed the Supreme Court about an anonymous person taking up the challenge to elicit his personal details using a website. Dwivedi informed having received a two-pager document with personal details of him and his family members.

He noted that the list of information did not contain any information linked to him or his family members' Aadhaar database. 

Dwivedi explained that the list of his personal details as well as information collection about his family members was purely collated with the help Google and data available in the public domain. He went on to state that the Aadhaar database is not connected to the internet which makes it difficult to process, analyse, hack, or manipulate. 

Aadhaar database is immune to unscrupulous activities, it cannot be used for surveillance or for commercial exploitation. Dwivedi argued. 

The apex court, in its interim order, had said Aadhaar will not be required for availing various services like mobile and banking till it decides the petitions challenging the scheme.

Earlier, Dwivedi was labouring on the point that Aadhaar authentication was not required for every transaction and the fear of aggregation and collation of metadata was unfounded.

"For example, in case of PAN cards, it is once in a lifetime. For the sims, it is done only at the time of obtaining it. So, where is this multiplication of authentication from morning till evening coming from," Dwivedi said, adding, "realistically speaking, there is no trail of authentication from morning to evening. No real-time tracking is done"