Virtually all Indians using smartphones give away Aadhaar data

Amid a raging debate on the privacy of Aadhaar numbers that went up to the Supreme Court, it has emerged that Rajiv Mehrishi, who retired as Union home secretary on Thursday, told a parliamentary panel last month that 40 per cent of Indians who use smartphones and top applications knowingly or unknowingly share data including Aadhaar with the entire world, including the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

According to The Indian Express, Mehrishi made this remark on 21 July when he appeared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, chaired by senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, and was questioned about possible threats to privacy with the linking of Aadhaar to various services.

Mehrishi said fingerprints and biometrics were being captured and this had happened with 40 per cent of the population who own smartphones. He replied in the affirmative when he was asked if it would be 100 per cent if every Indian started using a smartphone.

According to the paper's sources, Mehrishi called the sharing of mobile data by private companies a nuisance. He was said to have referred to the American design of a 'Timeline 2030' for capturing data.

Mehrishi also flagged the dangers of data theft through the use of applications, saying movement of people could be tracked throughout the day.

Chidambaram, who was home minister in the previous UPA government before taking over the finance portfolio, said if the mobile phones of two persons were located in close proximity, it could be concluded that both were in the same room, and this was how drone attacks were being carried out, the IE report said.

(Also see: "Has the CIA already accessed India's Aadhaar database?" asks WikiLeaks )