Former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan. (Express Photo by Prashant Nadkar) Former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan. (Express Photo by Prashant Nadkar)

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan today accused the BJP government of working hand in glove with global tech giants and turning Aadhaar into a surveillance tool. The senior Congress leader also alleged that in 2016 the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIADI) had asked global tech companies to embed Aadhaar encryption into their technology.

“BJP Government working in cahoots with global tech giants and turning AADHAR into a surveillance tool. Government must come clean,” Chavan said in a tweet.

BJP Government working in cahoots with global tech giants and turning AADHAR into a surveillance tool. Government must come clean. 2016 News reports confirms that UIDAI asked (politely?) global tech companies to embed AADHAR encryption into their technology. (1/2) — Prithviraj Chavan (@prithvrj) August 4, 2018

“Under what authority UIDAI directed tech companies to embed AADHAR encryption. If not, what penal action Govt/TRAI will take against Google,” he asked.

Late last evening, the Cyber Security Cell of Maharashtra police issued an advisory saying that if any number in the name of UIDAI was automatically added to the mobile phone contacts, it should be deleted.

Amid public outrage over Aadhaar helpline number being pre-stored without user consent on certain mobile phones, Google apologised last night for “inadvertently” loading the old UIDAI helpline number and 112 helpline number into the ‘setup wizard’ of Android phones.

Read | Google ‘inadvertently’ added UIDAI helpline number in Android version given to Indian manufacturers in 2014

The clarification came following reports that many Android-run mobile phones listed by default the Aadhaar helpline number 1800-300-1947.

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