New Delhi, August 5: Two days after tech giant Google owned up to the default inclusion of old Aadhaar helpline number in mobile phones, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Sunday condemned the vested interests for misusing Google's 'inadvertent' act as an opportunity to spread rumours against Aadhaar. The UIDAI emphasised that a number stored in the contact list cannot steal data from a mobile phone.

The Aadhaar issuing body further stated that by merely having an outdated helpline number on a mobile, no harm can be caused. "Just by a helpline number in a mobile's contact list, the data stored on the mobile phone cannot be stolen. Therefore, there should be no panic to delete the number as no harm will be caused. Rather people may, if they so wish, update it with UIDAI's new helpline number 1947," UIDAI noted.

The UIDAI further added saying rumour mongers attempted to tarnish the image of Aadhaar for an inadvertent mistake of Google which led to the appearance of its old helpline number 1800 300 1947 in the contact list of several mobile phone users. "UIDAI condemns the vested interests who tried to misuse Google's "inadvertent" act as an opportunity to spread rumours and go around fear-mongering against Aadhaar," UIDAI said in a statement.

On Friday, Google admitted that the number 18003001947 was added by it 'inadvertently' along with police and fire number 112 in 2014 and has since been continuing through sync mechanism. UIDAI further expressed hope that Google, a large digital platform provider, will look into this issue and will exercise due care so that such things are not repeated in future.

According to a report by PTI, the Aadhaar issuing body said that it has earlier clarified and emphasised that it has not asked any agency whatsoever to include its helpline number in the mobile phones and also added that merely adding a phone number cannot steal data in the phone.

"Just by a helpline number in a mobile's contact list, the data stored on the mobile phone cannot be stolen. Therefore, there should be no panic to delete the number as no harm will be caused. Rather people may, if they so wish, update it with UIDAI's new helpline number 1947," the UIDAI said.

(With inputs from PTI)

 

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 05, 2018 11:21 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).