In Aadhaar vs Privacy Debate, Union Minister KJ Alphons' Argument: 'Getting Naked Before White Man Not A Problem'
Alphons also dismissed the recent reports alleging data theft via the Narendra Modi app. "Don't believe in suh fake stories," he said.
New Delhi, Mar 25: Lashing out at the pro-privacy campaigners who have petitioned the Supreme Court against the mandatory usage of Aadhaar, Union Minister KJ Alphons said no objection is raised by them while disclosing their personal data before the non-governmental authorities.
The opposition would be raised "only when the government asks for data", Alphons said.
"I filled up to 10 pages for US Visa form. We have absolutely no problem giving our fingerprints and getting body naked before the white man at all," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
"When your own government asks for your name and address, there is a massive revolution saying it's intrusion in privacy," added Alphons, who is the junior Minister for Electronics and Information Technology departments.
His remarks comes in the backdrop of a couple of purported hacks conducted by private security researchers, who have claimed to gain access to data of users enrolled in the Aadhaar database.
According to a recent report in the business technology website ZDNet, a Delhi-based private researcher Karan Saini barged into the Aadhaar database using the loopholes in the security mechanism of "one state-owned utility company".
The name of the state-owned utility provider was withheld to prevent misuse of data by unethical hackers.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has, however, dismissed the reports, calling them baseless.
"Absolutely no breach of UIDAI's Aadhaar database," the nodal Aadhaar agency said, warning legal action against ZDNet for "such false and irresponsible reporting".
"Even if this claim is taken as true, it would raise security concerns on database of that utility company and has nothing to do with security of UIDAI's Aadhaar database. If one goes by the logic of ZDNet's story, since the utility company's database also had bank account numbers of its customers, so would that mean that all Indian banks' databases have been breached? The answer would obviously be in negative," it further added.
Supporting the UIDAI, Alphons said, "What is given in Aadhaar are just name & address. Your bio-metric data is with UIDAI and let me assure you that it has not been breached, its absolutely secure. We have given authorisation to govt agencies to access Aadhaar information."
The Minister also reacted to the claim of a French security researcher, who said the data of Narendra Modi app users is being stolen by a third-party American company Clever Trap.
Denying the charge, Alphons said, "Do you think Prime Minister is going to give your data to a private company? Don't believe such fake stories."
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 25, 2018 03:37 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).