R.S. Sharma, the Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) leaked his own personal details on Twitter on Saturday, challenging the users to harm his security.
The TRAI head, who is a stern defender of the Aadhaar and had also previously worked with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) threw an open challenge in a bid to prove how secure the Aadhaar system is.
“My Aadhaar number is 762177682740. Now I give this challenge to you: Show me one concrete example where you can do any harm to me!” tweeted Mr. Sharma.
It sparked a huge uproar in the site as netizens soon started posting his personal details, which included his phone number, alternate number, PAN and Voter ID details and even the address of his house.
A French Security researcher by the name of Elliot Anderson also joined the conversation and issued a warning to Sharma. “People managed to get your personal address, dob, and your alternate phone number. I stop here, I hope you will understand why to make your #Aadhaar number public is not a good idea,” he tweeted.
He also further went ahead and tweeted that Mr. Sharma’s Aadhaar details were not linked to his account details, to which Sharma replied “Looks like you are not as good as you claim to be! All my bank accounts are linked to Aadhaar. Further, even if you know my bank account number, so what!”
Sharma also added that the reason for his tweet was “to debunk the theory that Aadhaar compromises the privacy of the person.”
UIDAI itself later asserted that the information put up by the TRAI chief on Twitter was not from any Aadhaar database or any hacked information but such details are easily available on the Internet. The users have used Google or other sites to pull up those details which are readily available on the internet and do not cause any harm to anyone.