The government invited flak on Tuesday after former Indian cricket team captain M S Dhoni's Aadhaar card details were published on Twitter by the government agency that renders Aadhaar registration. Disappointed, Dhoni's wife Sakshi took the issue up with Information and Technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Twitter who promised serious action against the incident.
On Tuesday, e-governance firm Common Services Center tweeted a photo of Dhoni updating his Aadhaar details along with an image of his filled up application form and tagged Prasad in the tweet. The minister retweeted the same. Sakshi Dhoni was prompt to bring the picture to the attention of the Union minister. The picture was later deleted.
"is there any privacy left ??? Information of adhaar card including application is made public property!#disappointed (sic)," she said in her reply tweet to Prasad.
@rsprasad @CSCegov_ is there any privacy left ??? Information of adhaar card including application is made public property!#disappointed
— Sakshi Singh 🇮🇳❤️ (@SaakshiSRawat) March 28, 2017
Apparently, the minister had not noticed the picture of the personal application and replied: "No it is not a public property. Does this Tweet divulge any personal information?'
@SaakshiSRawat No it is not a public property. Does this Tweet divulge any personal information?
— Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) March 28, 2017
Sakshi pointed out the picture to the unaware minister who was quick to admit the mistake. Realising the privacy breach, Prasad assured 'serious action' against the incident.
"Thanks for bringing this to my notice. Sharing personal information is illegal. Serious action will be taken against this," he tweeted.
@rsprasad Sir I m talking about the application which was tweeted along with picture by @CSCegov_ pic.twitter.com/EHYwzfzfKR
— Sakshi Singh 🇮🇳❤️ (@SaakshiSRawat) March 28, 2017
@SaakshiSRawat Thanks for bringing this to my notice. Sharing personal information is illegal. Serious action will be taken against this.
— Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) March 28, 2017
The incident comes in the backdrop of privacy concerns surrounding Aadhaar. While the government is relentlessly promoting Aadhaar, there's hardly any answer on the potential privacy breach that comes with it.
Recently, the UIDAI had suspended the authentication services of Axis Bank after it was alleged that the bank was saving biometrics data illegally.