Telangana cautions officials on security of Aadhaar data

The civil supplies department has swung into action to protect the confidentiality of Aadhaar data after the Centre alerted all state governments of possible leakage as has occurred in some parts of the country.

Commissioner of civil supplies C.V. Anand alerted officials of his department on the necessity of keeping Aadhaar data a secret.He said that it was the responsibility of every employee not to disclose the demographic as well as other information collected from the beneficiaries at the time of issuance of ration cards.

If the data was still on display at any place such as online sites, he told them to withdraw it immediately. It was in this manner that the leaks occurred. Mr Anand was addressing a review meeting with officials of the IT wing of his department and National Informatics Centre, on Sunday. This meeting was called after the Centre and Unique Identification Authority of India wrote to the state government about protecting the confidentiality of Aadhaar data.

Mr Anand said any act of publishing identity or information like Aadhaar number and demographic details along with personal sensitive information such as bank details, in contravention of the Aadhaar Act 2016, and the Information Technology Act 2000, must be refrained from with immediate effect.

Under various provisions of the Aadhaar Act 2016, inter-alia 29(2), 29(3), 29(4), publishing Aadhaar number or other demographic information is not allowed and such action constitutes an offence under sections 37, 40 & 41, which is punishable with imprisonment of up to three years.

Contravening these provisions in these laws by any employee, including outsourcing and contract employees, will make the violator liable to pay damages by way of compensation to persons affected, Mr Anand warned.

The commissioner said that biometric information of Aadhaar holders collected for authentication should not be stored in unprotected endpoint devices such as PCs, laptops, smart phones, etc.

Instructions to government staff

 -> Do not disclose any Aadhaar related information
      to any external or unauthorised agency or 
      individual or entity.
-> Do not locate servers or other IT storage system 
    or devices having Aadhaar data outside of locked
    and fully secured rooms.
 -> Do not let unauthorised people to access stored
      Aadhaar data
 -> Do not share authentication license key with any
      other entity