AHMEDABAD: Three official Gujarat websites have been found flouting Aadhaar Act and publicly disclosing Aadhaar numbers of beneficiaries on their websites. Deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, on Sunday, said he was unaware of the issue. The lapse by the Gujarat government websites was recently revealed by the ministry of electronics and information technology.

The three errant websites are that of Gujarat government, Director of Developing Caste Welfare of the state and Gujarat University. In these, lists of beneficiaries along with their names, addresses and Aadhaar details have been displayed publicly.

The issue of lax data security practices by government and public websites is currently being hotly discussed across the nation and it has already reached the Parliament, with information about public display of Aadhaar numbers by errant websites tabled in the Parliament on December 29.

Around 200 websites across the country were found publicly displaying Aadhaar details of individuals and were asked to remove such data from public view.

When contacted, deputy chief minister Nitin Patel told TOI, “I am not aware of any such incident of making Aadhar details public. I do not have any information on the issue.”

Social justice and welfare minister, Ishwar Parmar, who is responsible for the affairs of the Developing Caste Welfare of the State, was also unaware of the breach of privacy, like his cabinet colleague. He told TOI, “I have recently assumed charge, so I am not aware of any such breach of privacy through Aadhar data leak.”

Himanshu Pandya, vice-chancellor of Gujarat University, said that he too was unaware of any such data breach and said that he would enquire upon the issue.

Lackadaisical data security practices leading to public display of personal information can easily be misused by fraudsters, say experts, regardless of the fact that such disclosure of Aadhaar numbers is by itself prohibited under Section 29 (4) of the Aadhaar Act 2016, and constitutes breach of confidentiality and data privacy.

Commenting on the matter, advocate of Gujarat high court, Anand Yagnik, said, “Privacy is a fundamental right and public disclosure of this information is violation of privacy.”

