Disclosure Of Aadhaar Number Doesn’t Increase One’s Digital Vulnerability, Says TRAI Chief

Outgoing Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Chairman RS Sharma—whose open dare to Twitterati on Aadhaar misuse had caused a social media furore—asserted today that mere knowledge of Aadhaar number can't increase one's “digital vulnerabilities.”

Sharma said the intention behind disclosure of his 12-digit number was never to abet others to publish or disclose their Aadhaar numbers.

Breaking his silence over the issue, Sharma said he has always maintained that disclosure, knowledge or sharing of the biometric ID number doesn't increase digital vulnerabilities.

Sharma, who retires on Aug. 9, was speaking on the sidelines of a conference where telecom regulator TRAI announced that two of its mobile apps—do not disturb app that reports pesky calls and MyCall app that measures call quality—will be available on the UMANG platform.

Following the TRAI Chief's Aadhaar challenge last month, the Unique Identification Authority of India had asked people to not publicly share their 12-digit identifier on internet and social media, or pose such challenges to others. “Such activities are uncalled for and should be refrained as these are not in accordance with the law,” UIDAI had said in a statement.

An all-out war had raged on Twitter after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India chief shared his Aadhaar number publicly, challenging anyone to show how mere knowledge of the number can be misused to harm him.

While some claimed to have got access to his bank account number and email, Sharma refuted the claims saying they were untrue.