Spooked by data breaches, majority scared to use Aadhaar accounts to access digital wallet
In the wake of recent reports on Aadhaar data breach
by various sources, results from a survey revealed that a majority of
the respondents were uncomfortable in using their Aadhaaraccounts to
access e-commerce accounts or digital wallets.
In the recent past, the government has laid a lot of
emphasis on consumers to link their Aadhaar with all important
documents like PAN, bank account, mobile number, insurance policies and
so on. There have also been reports that some ecommerce sites have been
asking consumers to link their website accounts with Aadhaar when they
are trying to track a lost package. Many other internet-based businesses
like payment wallets have also mandated Aadhaar for the consumers to
avail their services.
Internet-based companies like AirBnb, Uber and Ola
have also been asking the user to upload a copy of their Aadhaar while
registering on the site as a safety measure, so that their true identity
could be ascertained.
In this regard, a survey was conducted by
LocalCircles on around 20,000 people, broadly on the subject of using
Aadhaar details on the aforementioned platforms.
The first poll asked if the citizens would feel
comfortable in linking their Aadhaar with their e-commerce site
accounts. 61 percent said they would not be comfortable while 30 percent
said they were fine with it.
When asked if they would be comfortable in linking
Aadhaar with their payment wallet accounts, 49 percent refused, while 33
percent agreed, and 18 percent were neutral.
A related poll asked citizens if there should be a
financial penalty for banks, telecom providers or any other
organisations that compromise their Aadhaar, bank or call/data
transaction details, to which 94 percent replied in an affirmative. They
said that in case of data leakage, the respective bank or telecom
operator should be severely penalised to ensure that they keep the data
security measure to the optimum levels.
Recently, the Unique Identification Authority of
India (UIDAI) while responding to some media reports which alleged that
“210 Government sites made Aadhaar info public” assured that the Aadhaar
data was fully safe and secure, and there has never been a breach or
data leak at the UIDAI.
The UIDAI in a notification said the data on these
mentioned websites was placed in a public domain as a measure of
proactive disclosure under Right to Information (RTI) Act by government
and institutional websites, which included the beneficiaries’ name,
address, bank account, and other details, which also included the
Aadhaar number and were collected from the third party/users for various
welfare schemes.
Meanwhile, LocalCircles is submitting this report to
UIDAI and other stake holders, so that appropriate action could be
taken, and cases of data leakage could be minimised.
Source: Timesnow