Hyderabad, April 26: While the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the body that governs Aadhaar, has been claiming that Aadhaar data is safe and cannot be breached, a recent report has revealed that sensitive biometric details 1.34 lakh Aadhaar card holders in Andhra Pradesh have been leaked publicly. As per reports, the biometric details were leaked from Andhra Pradesh State Housing Corporation website.

The leaked data was part of a list titled ‘Beneficiary Details belonging to Entry Report for Scheme Hudhud’ on the website. Th website reportedly allowed anyone to use religion or caste as a search criterion to identify the homes of 5,166,698 families in 13 districts in Andhra Pradesh.

Ironically, the incident comes a day after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu inaugurated The Andhra Pradesh Cyber Security Operations Centre (APCSOC) which is touted to be the first-of-its-kind in the country.  It must be noted that it is not illegal to collect data under the act but making it public is prohibited.

As per reports by the New Indian Express, an independent security researcher Kodali Srinivas on Thursday exposed how the State government website itself was leaking Aadhaar data, bank accounts complete with IFSC codes, caste and religion besides geo-location of 1.34 lakh beneficiaries of housing schemes. “The UIDAI may not be doing it, but other government departments are. And the AP housing corporation website is proof. The UIDAI has no idea what information is being linked to the unique ID,” Kodali said.

Kodali added saying that at the bottom of the website, the AP government has put in a disclaimer, which says, nobody is responsible if data is leaked, and no official can be penalised. The researcher found that the State Housing Corporation's website had personal details of beneficiaries on a document titled Beneficiary Details belonging to Entry Report for Scheme Hudhud and the Urban Housing Scheme.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 26, 2018 11:54 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).