New Delhi: Just few hours after the TRAI chairman R.S. Sharma threw a challenge and tweeted his Aadhaar number asking if it had made him vulnerable to any security risk, his personal details from PAN to mobile number were leaked.
Giving out his 12-digit Aadhaar number, the TRAI chairman had tweeted, “Now I give this challenge to you: Show me one concrete example where you can do any harm to me.”
The challenge by TRAI chief evoked an immediate response, with some users claiming to have found out his mobile number, photographs, residential address, and date of birth using the information, while others warned him about the jeopardies of sharing his Aadhaar number on the social media platform.
A French security expert Elliot Alderson with twitter handle @fs0c131y in a series of tweets leaked TRAI official’s personal address, DoB, alternate phone number and explained him how risky it was to make the Aadhaar number public.
Although Mr Sharma did not verify whether the details pertaining to his PAN were correct or not, but he said, “Much of these information may already be in the public domain.”
Mr Sharma, former UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) director general, has been a strong defender of Aadhaar and always said that the unique ID does not violate privacy and the government reserved a right to create such a database of residents since it gives subsidies on state-run welfare schemes.